No Rest for the Wicked
by Priestess of Groove
Summary: "The Great Harvey Specter: chased out of his condo by a fire and now looking like death warmed over."  Harvey/Donna-ish
1. Prologue

**First and Foremost: I do not own Suits. Enjoy!  
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**Prologue**

It was supposed to be easy. A $200 million lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company which had been shown to have shady dealings in the past, forgot to mention poisonous ingredients to the FDA when they were having their drug tested. Jessica had passed it on to him with a look that said, "There's no way you could screw this up." Well, that was _until_ they had discovered that one of their clients was actually working for said Pharmaceutical company and it had taken some fancy file managing and negotiating and scheduling to keep the sneaky bastard from learning anything. Furthermore, a blip had popped up on the radar indicating that the company had finagled its way into getting a judge that was less fond of these "frivolous lawsuits" and more inclined to rule in favor of the company's interests.

Thursday afternoon, Harvey had bee-lined to his associate's cubicle only to find the kid literally buried under paper work, not only for the case, but because Louis desperately needed his briefs edited to perfection. After snatching up the briefs and unceremoniously dumping them on Gregory's desk – the smug idiot appeared to be jamming on his iPod and updating his Facebook for all the paperwork that Harvey could see in front of him – and he sent Mike home.

"But–!" Mike had looked up at him with wide drawn eyes as though Superman had swooped down and saved him from a slow death, but the enthusiasm was dulled by the raccoon circles and the haze of exhaustion.

"Go home. You're no use to me now. Go home, sleep the full night, and be here bright and early Friday. I need you firing on all cylinders tomorrow. Be here _on time_," he had said to the kid while he flipped through the paper work on his desk and organized it into a neat pile for him to take back to his own desk.

"Okay," Mike only replied, getting up and grabbing his suit jacket from his chair and reaching down for his messenger bag.

"And for God's sake, _call Ray!_ I don't want you riding that death trap when you look like fresh hell."

"Okay, okay," Mike said with a little bit more impatience in his voice.

As soon as he was out of sight, Harvey pulled out his phone and called Ray; "I would appreciate it if you could take my associate home. Be out front in ten; he's leaving right now."

"Yes, sir."

Snapping his cell shut he hoisted the paper work and turned only to find Louis' most annoying protégé, Kyle, standing there with what he presumed was supposed to be a charming smile. "Mr. Specter, sir, if you need any help, I'd be – "

"I don't," he said and gave him a glare that was powerful enough to shrink the associate back out of his way, and then continued onto his office. After setting down the files, he took a slight detour to the men's room to cordially remind Louis he has at least half a dozen of his own associates at his beck and call and that _his_ cases took priority over Louis'. That taken care of, he settled in for a long night of paper perusing for that _one_ flaw one of those elite lawyers was bound to make.

At some point Harvey had laid back on his couch, still in his full suit to rest his eyes. Next thing he knew, his leg was jolted, and he sat up bolt upright and almost fell completely off the couch before he grabbed the arm to steady himself. Gray daylight was streaming through the windows of his office and Donna stood before him with a knowing smile, still in her coat with her purse in hand and two coffees.

"Somehow I knew you wouldn't be going home for the night. It's 7:30. The rest of the office will be here in half an hour. I suggest you clean yourself up," she said in a voice that was far too bright and alert for his liking.

He pinched his eyes shut and attempted to rub the exhaustion out of them, but then he gladly reached for the coffee she held out for him and said in a sleep-laden voice, "Thank you, Donna." This favor might constitute a nice fat bonus from his own paycheck. She was just at his door when he asked her, "What would I do without you?"

"I can't even imagine," she said quietly, but he chuckled and got up to pull out his spare suit. Mike may be able to get away with sleeping in his suit – as much as Harvey frowned upon it, the kid still managed to charm his way into the firm – but Harvey most certainly could not. He downed the coffee and prepped, himself looking no worse for the wear.

Mike, by comparison, was bouncing off the walls. He practically skipped down the hallway to Donna's desk with a bright, "Morning, Donna" and stepped into office appearing about ready to tackle the smaller stack still left when he abruptly halted in his tracks.

Harvey raised his eyebrows at Mike and frowned pensively at him. "What?"

"You were here all night?" It was more of a statement of fact than an actual question.

Harvey's frown deepened. "You can tell?" He glanced down at his clean suit, expecting to see wrinkles on the sleeves of his neatly pressed shirt and still found none.

"Well….yes," Mike said. Harvey could see his eyes darting ever so slightly as if speaking the wrong word might be grounds for dismissal. "It's just….your eyes. They look dull and not nearly as bright and sharp."

"You routinely look into my eyes?" Harvey pried, just one eyebrow raised in surprise. Truth be told the observation amused him and he could not help but needle the kid over such an awkward phrasing.

"Well, I mean…you know – well, of course I look into your eyes! Eye contact and all! It's just…you don't look so…energetic."

Harvey sighed; Mike was babbling again.

"Look! Just start on the files. I don't need to spend my weekend here," he grumped

So it had come down to a long and drawn out battle between an entire team of elite lawyers all hired to protect the company against him and Mike. But finally, _finally_, they had a break through. Mike was the one who spotted it – naturally. Harvey had known he would make a great lawyer with that kind of attention to detail – and they had spent the rest of the day prepping their files, ready to settle the second biggest case of Harvey's career. They settled for $300 million – because, truly, Harvey needed some compensation for all the trouble the company had given them and they had _still_ won! Now, well after 9 o'clock at night, Harvey was putting the finishing touches to the file and putting away the half dozen or so records he had pulled out, having fended off the hoards of senior and junior partners offering to buy him drinks.

So he was surprised when Jessica Pearson suddenly appeared at his office door, her arms folded in what would look like impatience, but he could see the beginnings of a pleased smile on her face. He nodded at her and waited for her to speak her piece.

"Congratulations," she said. Though her voice hardly ever entered a volume above a whisper, she was still easy to hear.

"I am still the best closer in the city," he replied, giving her his trademark smirk. After putting the last record back, he picked up the file, his suit jacket over his shoulder and stepped up closer to her. "I'm surprised you're still here so late on a Friday night."

She gave him a look that could only be mistaken for faint fondness when she said, "I had to stay behind and look over the paper work of one our most brilliant senior partners and his associate." He cocked his head at her and she could see the critical analyzing going through his mind. "Nothing behind this, Harvey. If I had had any idea the amount of trouble the case was going to give you, I would have reassigned half the associates to do the research for you and partnered you up with a senior partner."

"I only need one associate and he proved how valuable he was today. I think the kid deserves a raise," Harvey replied. "Donna, too, for that matter."

Jessica chuckled. "I'll see if there's room in the budget."

Harvey smiled back at her with a little more fire than he felt, clearly threatening to hound her if he felt his employees were not getting their due cut. But then he closed his eyes and said, "If you will excuse me, I have a weekend to get to."

"Have a good weekend, Harvey. You've earned it."

"When have I not?" Harvey shot back at her, before turning the corner to the elevator.

But, as was contrary to most Friday nights, he rode up the elevator to the 20th floor alone. Normally he could find himself at the Gotham Car Club picking his next ride for the weekend and then he would head off to hopefully charm the panties off of a beautiful catch at one of the ritzier bars of the city. At the moment, that sounded more appealing as a Saturday night endeavor than tonight's. There was a real danger he might actually nod off in mid conversation with one of them.

He was already stripping off his clothes before he even stepped into his bedroom, only just now realizing this is the first time he'd seen his bed before midnight in nine days. The last time he was that busy was well before Mike had entered into his life and it was a wonder what a full night's sleep could do for a person. _I must be getting soft, _he thought as he vaguely recalled the days when he was still an associate under Jessica, who found him asleep at his desk at least once a month in those days.

Tonight called for some low key celebrating with his favorite brand of scotch and a Star Trek marathon – or however far he managed to get into the Wrath of Khan.

It wasn't long before he had showered and changed into his sleepwear of his white t-shirt and sleep pants and was now lying on the couch, so mellow from two glasses of scotch that he had long tuned out Star Trek and was merely two winks shy of asleep. He finally gave up and switched the TV off and looked forward to a long night of sleeping. He glanced at the clock on the night stand and its digital read glared into the pitch black: 1:02 AM.

Finally, sleep.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

**This story is actually modeled off of my experience of what happened when someone set my dorm on fire.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Harvey poked his head out the hallway at the same time as two of his neighbors. One man had a balding but otherwise youthful face and the other man, further down the hall, had the appearance of a grizzled war hero with deep wrinkles cut into his cheeks and hair so gray it was almost white.

"You think it's a false alarm?" The balding guy said.

"False alarm? Jesus Christ, we're not in college here," the grizzled man said with a roll of his eyes and came out wearing a Yale shirt, sleep pants, and slippers.

"Yeah, mandatory fire drills were definitely not on the lease," Harvey replied, probably sounding not dissimilar from Mike when he thoroughly read a document.

"….You read the lease?"

Harvey blinked and gave the balding man a look as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"He's a lawyer. Of course he read the lease," the grizzled guy said. "Hey, Specter, check the stairs down there. I'll do the ones over here." By this time, everyone else who had been sleeping had opened their doors and the hallway was filling with people caught in their sleep wear.

Harvey glared at the man, but stepped over to the door just barely across the way from his own door and put a hand flat to the surface to find that it was still cool. When he opened it up, however, a wave of smoke suddenly rolled into the hallway and clogged his senses and he choked, pushing the door back closed. "Smoke down that one," Harvey reported, desperately rubbing to get the burning out of his eyes.

He heard the door open at the other end of the hallway; there was a pitter patter of footsteps and the grizzled guy yelled, "Hey! Hey wait!"

A black man in the hallway grabbed the older man and said, "Whoa! No, that's dangerous! You can't save that guy."

"Wait, what happened?" Harvey asked.

Grizzled turned from scowling at the door and said, "This one's filled with smoke too. Some idiot went down anyway."

"Does that mean we're trapped?" A woman in a rather skimpy night outfit had also wandered into the hall.

Harvey rolled his eyes.

"Unless you have a fire escape from your window," Grizzly said to her and Harvey could detect just the faintest trace of sarcasm in his voice.

"Uh…no. Does anybody?"

"It's a glass building, twenty stories up; there wouldn't be any fire escapes," said another person who hadn't completely lost their senses. But after the proclamation, a low murmur broke out among the remaining people in the hallway, bringing their total number of residents to roughly ten.

"All right, everyone, just relax. We'll simply have to wait to be rescued. See any fire trucks, Specter?"

Harvey had wandered to the end of the hallway and tried to get a glimpse of the activity down below, but all he saw were just the flash of emergency lights glancing off other buildings windows. "There are definitely emergency vehicles down there, but I can't get a proper look from this high up."

"They're here. That's all that matters," Grizzled replied. "Okay, people, why don't we go back into our condos and pack some essentials. We'll be ready to make our escape whenever they get up here to find us. I'll call to make sure they know we're up here."

"Wait a minute, here, who put you in charge?" Balding guy said, his nose held up in a haughty way.

_That man must be a CEO. Only they would be that finicky about who's running the show, _Harvey thought, honestly wishing he didn't have to deal with any of these people. But with the confusion swiftly turning to anger and panic, Harvey spoke up, "Who cares if he's in charge? There's nothing more we can do anyway. I, for one, will pack some things." And he headed back into his room, muttering curses under his breath.

The first thing he did was change out of his pajamas into something a little more suitable for public life which, for him, consisted of a pair of jeans and one of his Harvard t-shirts he still had lying around. Then he pulled out a backpack that he kept around for just such an occasion and packed his sleep wear inside, a pair of khakis, a few pairs of socks, and underwear. He grabbed his comb, toothbrush and decided packing some shampoo would probably be a good idea.

He glanced at his suits and contemplated the idea for all of five seconds and then shook his head. _Screw it; they're too bulky._ He only stopped to grab his phone and charger off the kitchen counter, and then dug through the underbelly of his kitchen for the flashlight he stored down there. But just as he was about to leave the apartment, he stared at his phone where the time glared at him: 1:32 AM. _Donna and Jessica would probably like to be aware that my apartment complex is on fire. _But which one to call first? Oh, hell, Donna always came first.

He leaned against the door and stared up at the ceiling as he waited for her to pick up. When she did, she did not disappoint, "I swear to God, Harvey, if this is some sort of drunk call, I _am _going to cut off your balls on Monday." He couldn't keep from chuckling, but he sobered up over the news he was about to tell her.

"Donna, I just wanted to let you know that my apartment building is on fire."

"Oh my God, are you okay? You must be okay. You wouldn't be calling me –"

"We're….stuck on our floor. The stairways are blocked off. We have to wait for someone to rescue us. I wouldn't worry, though, because the fire doesn't seem to be anywhere near my floor." There was a very long pause and he almost thought she'd hung up. "Donna?"

"You expect me to just keep calm while you're trapped in a building that is on fire?"

"Actually, I expect you to keep calm and call Mike and tell him what's going on," he corrected, hoping he might get a more positive response from her. "I will keep you updated on developments here. I'm not dead yet."

"I should hope not. I never expected a fire to do you in."

"What did you exp –?"

"A heart attack while screwing your latest catch."

"No way. Definitely a plane crash after getting strip searched at the airport."

"You said it!"

Harvey couldn't keep the smile from his face as he leaned back against the door to head out into the hallway with everyone else. Half of the other people were already staked out in the hallway, sitting on the floor like children waiting to head off to recess. Only Grizzled was standing and at his door on the phone as well, with his own backpack and what appeared to be a pet carrier at his feet.

"—there's ten of us on the 20th floor. When everyone's out here I'll do a better head count. So where is the fire– " He stopped in mid-sentence as he apparently listened to the person on the other end of the line.

"Could you stay on the line for a minute, Donna. I'll get back to you," Harvey replied and walked over to him, making no attempt at hiding his eavesdropping.

Grizzled looked him squarely in the eye for the last bit of the conversation. "So the fire is confined to the 5th and 6th floors? Good to know. I'm assuming the only danger we're in is death by smoke inhalation," Grizzled said, with a particular bite to his voice that spoke of another concern. "I thought so. I hope that's the case. Fine. We'll be waiting in the hallway." He clicked his smart phone off.

Harvey didn't bother with even a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I think you heard enough to know the situation," Grizzled said to him. "They did promise me that smoke inhalation was our greatest threat and that it could be a couple of hours before they get up here."

Harvey closed his eyes, trying to keep the exasperated sigh from escaping, but then he put his phone back to his ear. "You still there?"

"Waiting," Donna replied.

"The fire is on the 5th and 6th floors."

"Good."

"It could be a few hours before they get anyone up here."

"Well then, sounds like I won't see you for a few hours. My phone will be next to my pillow."

He felt the dull stabs of jealously rise at the thought of returning to bed. "You're going back to sleep? And what do you mean 'see me?'"

"You are coming back to my place with me," Donna replied, as if the answer had been just that obvious.

"Wait, when did we decide this?"

"When you called me!"

"I'm your boss; I'm supposed to let you know about things like this. You act like I'm poor. I can afford a hotel for a few nights."

"Harvey," there was a pause in which Harvey assumed she was getting that deranged look in her eyes when she had a partner or an associate to chew up. "You're coming back with me, even if I have to bound and gag you and throw you in the trunk of the cab."

"All right then, your place. Don't wait up for me, honey. And call Mike!"

"As if I would forget. What about Jessica?"

"I'll call her myself."

"You better come out alive," Donna said and the line disconnected abruptly.

Harvey snorted, but he couldn't keep the small smirk from his lips. Nothing like talking to Donna to deflate the importance of the situation and make it just that more bearable.

"Interesting relationship you have there," Grizzled said. Harvey frowned at him, but by that point the other occupants of the floor had gathered around them and Grizzled turned to address them. "Okay, this is what they told me. The fire is confined to floors 5 and 6 and we should just sit tight and wait for the firefighters to get up here and rescue us."

"Why don't we wait in our condos?" The balding CEO from next door to Harvey asked.

"Because you'll get rescued faster if the fire fighters don't have to search for you," Grizzled replied. "Just sit out here and relax. They did say it could be a few hours, so make yourselves comfortable."

Harvey turned away and lowered himself to sit against his own condo and everyone dispersed to do virtually the same thing. He pulled out his phone and finally dialed Jessica. It wasn't until the fifth ring that he heard her sleepily answer, "Harvey? What's going on?"

"Hi, Jessica. My apartment building is on fire." He could hear the stunned silence from the phone and he continued, "We cannot get out. The stairwells are filled with smoke, so we have to wait for the firefighters to put the fire out and come and get us. I figured you'd appreciate knowing."

"Your condo is on fire?"

"The building is on fire. I am, for the moment, perfectly safe. I wouldn't worry. I'll keep you and Donna updated, but it looks like it's going to be a few hours."

"Do you have a place to stay when you get out?"

"Donna's opened her apartment to me."

Jessica laughed, deep and throaty, and she said, "Fancy wording for 'adoption.'"

He frowned at her and she seemed to from over the phone.

"I may not know Donna as well as you, but I know she wouldn't let you out of her sight after something like this."

"You're not nearly as smart as you think you are."

"Oh, aren't I?" Jessica challenged but he had nothing and let his silence speak for him. "Please keep me updated, Harvey. I would hate to lose my once again reaffirmed best closer in the city."

"If I can handle a $300 million settlement by myself, I think I can handle a little fire," he clicked the phone shut and leaned back against his door. After a moment, he spoke loud enough for everyone in the little hallway to hear, "Anyone have a deck of cards?"

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><p><strong>Thank you very much for the reviews! They're much appreciated. =)<strong>


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: ** Interesting to hear that there are other people out there with dorm fire experiences. Dorm fire survivors unite!

Once again, I do not own the Suit characters. I do however own all the rich people on the same floor as Harvey.

**Chapter 2**

Grizzled had magically pulled out a pack of some very worn cards and soon he, Harvey, the CEO, and black guy were all having a game of poker in the vicinity of Grizzled's door.

The eleven or so inhabitants of the twentieth floor were sprawled all over the hallway. One couple sat not too far away, holding a quiet conversation. Another man sat further down the hallway and Harvey was fairly certain he heard the telltale sounds of Angry Birds on his iPad. There was a single girl further down the hall with headphones and a book in her hands. The woman in the formerly skimpy night gown was now dressed in tiny shorts and a rather low cut t-shirt and she had made herself quite comfortable next to Harvey, who kept rolling his eyes over to her with a severe frown. He did his best to make sure she couldn't see his cards, but in such cramped and close quarters, that was a bigger challenge than he would have hoped.

Grizzled had a cat in the carrier that he used as an arm rest and every once in a while, the animal would remember where it was and – Harvey couldn't think of any other word to describe it – yowl, long, loud, and disturbingly mournful. When it did this, Grizzled would simply say, "Shut up, you stupid cat." It would soon return to the disturbing quiet of the hallway.

"I raise you ten," Harvey said. He always prided himself on being virtually unreadable, but he had a feeling that ability might have improved now that he was virtually dozing off against the wall. He already had to give CEO an acidic glare after the man tried to glimpse his cards during another doze. He suddenly opened his eyes at a vibration in his pants and he reached in his back pocket to pull out his phone and find that Mike had finally sent him a text message.

'_Are you okay?'_

Harvey couldn't help but chuckle. _The kid spent half an hour writing that? He was probably having a nervous breakdown in that shitty apartment of his. _He quickly texted back, _'No worse for the wear. Don't worry your pretty head over me.'_

He called over the next round of betting when his phone buzzed again and he glanced at it. _'Worried about you? No, I'm worried about me! I'd have to find another job if you died.'_

_That damn kid is picking up far too many of my mannerisms, _Harvey thought, barely able to keep the smile off of his face. _'You might get reassigned to Louis.'_

With a triumphant smirk, Harvey scooped up at least thirty dollars in winnings that time. CEO was just down to a few dollars and his face was getting redder by the minute. The phone went off again and he checked it while the cards were dealt out again.

_'Hence why I'd have to find another job.'_

Harvey snorted and put his phone back as he looked at his cards this time, displeased to see all he had were a pair of sixes. He didn't think he'd bother trying to bluff if Grizzled decided to raise the betting to anything higher than twenty. He noticed that as they played, Grizzled would stare often at him with narrowed eyes as though he was looking for something – his tell? He didn't think so – but he never spoke up.

He finally decided to break the long silence, "How do you know my name?"

"My colleague's curse the very air you breathe," Grizzled said and he could see a smile tugging at the older man's lips.

"You a lawyer too?"

"Doctor. Doctor David Reeft."

"Ah, malpractice suits."

"That's right. It wasn't too hard to figure out that you also lived on my floor from the colorful cast of people that wind up on your door."

Harvey raised his eyebrows at that but gave no comment. It was at this point, though, that he noticed the woman next to him sidled up so close she was practically breathing down his neck. "Get off my back," he snapped and she jumped back. He gave her a piercing glare for extra reinforcement, despite the pitiful pout she now aimed at him, and turned back to call the latest bet.

He had seen this behavior in plenty of his previous catches and normally he would be perfectly happy to engage in meaningless conversation and drink up to a good time, but they were sitting in the hallway of their own goddamn apartment complex waiting to be rescued. And he sure as hell would _not_ sleep with anyone who actually lived in the building, let alone on the same floor. He just knew that if that happened, he would never be rid of her until he _moved_. When he continued to look askance at her, she finally got up and moved down the hall to where her stuff lay.

Harvey looked up when CEO threw his cards down and stomped away down the hall. He heard the black guy next to him mutter, "Poor sport" and then they dealt out another hand.

Oh good, he had a pair of Aces and there was another ace in the middle. He was virtually assured a win with this hand, but he started out conservative and then laid his head back against the wall and allowed his eyes to shut. He would finish this hand and just maybe try to sneak in a nap while they waited. He glanced at his phone and thumped his head against the wall: 2:25 am. He texted Donna and Jessica: _'No updates. I'm bored.'_

"Call," David said and threw in five dollars, but he was giving Harvey a shrewd look as if he'd already gotten a glimpse of his cards.

"I'll stay," Harvey said and then he drew the next card and was pleased when he found it was a nine, making his hand a full house. Beautiful.

His phone buzzed with a text from Donna, _'You're boring me. I'm trying to sleep!'_

_ 'I'm starting to hate you.'_

The black man was staring at him this time as he weighed his options and then he shook his head and threw his cards down. "I'm well aware of your reputation Mr. Specter. I don't think I'll tempt fate."

"Suit yourself," Harvey replied neutrally to him.

He flipped his phone and snorted at Donna's next message: _'You're whining like an associate.'_

"Well, I'm game. I raise you fifteen, Specter," David said and slapped down some money in the middle of the originally pitiful pot.

"Mrow."

"Quiet, Ginger, I'm going to win this time."

"All right then. Twenty-five," Harvey said.

"I'm not letting you off that easy. Thirty-five."

"Whatever you say. Call."

With a triumphant smile, David threw his cards down face up. Harvey's face fell when he saw the kings and he sighed, and then he glanced up at the doctor who still had an irrepressible grin.

"I hate to break it to you, Dr. Reeft. But you still lost," and he flipped his two aces and put on his trademark grin.

"Damn it," David said, pounding his hand against the carpet but the display seemed more for show than anything and snorted when he saw Harvey carefully pick up each dollar bill and count them meticulously. "And don't call me doctor. Just David's fine."

"Marcus," the black man said, dealing out their cards again. "I'm a stockbroker on Wallstreet."

"You know my name. And if either of you are in need a lawyer, you come to me to win," Harvey said. He made a disgusted noise and threw his cards down as soon as he saw them. A two and a four.

"What was that you said about winning?"

"Oh shut up," Harvey said, but he couldn't help but smirk

Both Marcus and David were smiling as they reviewed their own cards. Harvey decided to take the time to take a power nap. He settled his shoulder with the old injury – which was screaming at him now – a little more comfortably against the hall and folded his arms, letting his head loll back against the wall.

"Hey."

His eyes snapped open at the rather sharp slap on his cheek and he shot David the most acidic glare. "What the hell was that for?"

David was staring at him completely unfazed and with, if Harvey was not mistake, a little concern. "You're not allowed to fall asleep."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want you to die from smoke inhalation."

Harvey rolled his eyes. He had been patient the last three days and he had even extended that patience with a glass or two of scotch and a lovely helping of adrenaline. The after effects of the scotch had long left him and the adrenaline had finally left his system, leaving him even more drained than before. His patience was just about to snap. "I'm not going to die from smoke inhalation. I need sleep."

"Well, I can see you're tir –"

"That is an understatement."

"– but you're not going to sleep. As a doctor, I feel obligated to keep you alive."

"Nothing is going to happen. Do you treat all your patients with this sort of paranoia?"

"The stairwells are full of smoke and neither of those two doors are sealed. Without a doubt, there is smoking leaking in here. You're not going to sleep and neither is anyone else," David said with a tone of pronounced finality.

"You really think we're all going to die in our sleep?" Marcus asked. He also seemed stricken at the idea of not being able to sleep while they waited.

"I've been in a lot of fires. I know better than to take my chances," David replied.

"Your luck that bad?" Harvey said, his glare still unrelenting and his voice was sour.

"I was in the Vietnam War."

"I knew it!" Harvey was pleased that he had read the man perfectly once again. David gave him a questioning look and he simply said, "You look like some old war hero."

"I don't know if you could call me a war hero. I wasn't a soldier. I was a doctor. Ever tried performing surgery in a sticky, humid jungle with napalm fires burning everywhere? It's awful."

Marcus shuddered and said, "And completely unsanitary."

"Some soldiers couldn't wait for the helicopter. I had to operate there."

"So, if it was so bad why did you go? Drafted?" Harvey asked though he only had a passing interest. Not like there was anything else to do.

David gave him his own sour look. "My parents. They thought I might squander the family fortune in my youthful exuberance. They thought serving in the war would straighten me out and give me some perspective." He shuddered and did not continue.

The silence fell and Harvey was once again feeling his temper creep back up on him as felt the screaming tension in his shoulder and another wave of exhaustion roll over him. It was starting to become remarkably tempting to jump David and beat him into unconsciousness just to get the ten minutes to half an hour of sleep that he didn't only just crave, but needed. He sighed and felt his eyelids close involuntarily again and, _again_, David smacked him on the cheek.

"I am very tempted to file an assault charge against you," Harvey sniped.

"Distract yourself! But you're not sleeping."

Harvey opened his mouth ready to say something far more biting when the hallway lights flickered. Everyone glanced up as the lights blinked a few more seconds and then suddenly they were in complete darkness.

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading and thank you so much for all your reviews! I always appreciate feedback. =)<strong>


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **This chapter just so happens to be 15 pages. This will not be a common length, so do enjoy!

**I still don't own Suits.  
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**Chapter 3**

A scream rent the air and Harvey jumped a foot in the air, glancing down the hall where all the other tenants were supposed to be. He then remembered his flashlight and dragged his backpack out to search for it and was relieved when he found it was on top and clicked it on to down the hallway. The woman who had been hanging all over him through most of their card games was on her feet, visibly trembling from head to toe and her next words chilled the atmosphere in the hallway.

"We're all going to die!"

"Get a grip," Harvey replied. "We're not going to die!"

David had flipped open his phone and now held it to his ear with a grim expression on his face. "I better be hearing some updates down there. We just lost power."

"We're going to die," the woman sobbed again.

The man with the wife gave her a desperate look and yelled, "Will you stop saying that?"

"We are."

"Just relax, lady. Help is on the way," Marcus said in probably the most soothing and calm voice of them all.

"We'd like some news. Some of us are going into hysterics here," David spoke as levelly into the phone as he could, but Harvey could see even in the low light that he was gritting his teeth.

"We're not going to get out."

"Yes, we are," Harvey, Marcus and a few others said at the same time.

"Why don't you please just sit down and try to remain calm," said the girl, who didn't appear much older than Mike. Her voice was calm enough but Harvey could see a glare on her face that matched his irritation. When they all saw the woman tense, the girl had raised her voice to take on more of a commanding tone, "Sit down before you do something you'll regret." Even as she said this, Harvey saw her move to a crouch, as though she were about to spring onto the woman like a tiger waiting to ambush a water buffalo.

The panicked woman suddenly bolted and the girl sprang, just barely missing her waist and falling onto the floor. Harvey dropped his flashlight and stood in the woman's way just before she crashed into them and they crashed to the floor. He struggled for a moment, trying to grab hold of her flailing arms, but she managed to punch him in the eye socket and then more stars exploded in front of his eyes when she managed to land a foot right in his groin.

She got up but then Marcus tackled her and he pressed her to the floor with his sheer body weight, having a good grip on her arms and he whispered to her slowly and softly for her to calm down.

Harvey did not see any of this. He had rolled himself into the fetal position and was banging his head against the floor, trying to suppress the pain that radiated between his legs. David eventually came up to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and gave him a dubious look, one that he had seen on Mike's face right before he said something he knew was going to sound stupid.

"Are you okay?"

_Do I look okay? _Was what Harvey desperately wanted to snarl at him but all he could manage was his most venomous glare of the night and deep and low groan. He desperately wanted to punch the man in the face when he saw that David was trying to keep from laughing. He eventually covered it up with some coughing and patted him gently on the shoulder. Harvey found his voice and growled, "Get your hands off me!"

David stepped away and raised the phone to his ear again. "Still there? Good. I'm going to move everyone into my condo, number 2014. We're sick of waiting in the hallway. Knock when you get here." He snapped the phone shut and proceeded to unlock his door, and then he turned to face everyone again and said, "Okay, I have been told that the fire has been contained on the 6th floor, but, yes, they are _still_ putting it out." This announcement was met with a collective groan. "Yeah, we're going to be here a few more hours. So I propose we all move into my apartment where we actually have chairs." He glanced down close to his feet where Harvey was still curled and he nudged him with his toe.

"What?" Harvey's voice was not dissimilar from a cobra about to strike at the next person who came too close.

"When you're ready, I expect you to play pool with me. I'd be curious to see what a hotshot lawyer such as yourself can do."

Harvey only grunted in response and then everyone filed into David's condo, no longer having the energy to protest the decisions he'd been making for them. David and Marcus both made sure the panicked woman went without a fuss, ready to wrestle her down again if she made any move to bolt like a frightened rabbit. Then he was left alone in the hallway and he sighed with relief. He was not used to being in such close quarters with so many people for so long and it was a relief, even if he was not in a bed sleeping, to finally get some peace and quiet after such a long night. He willed himself to stay awake as he knew that damn doctor would be out here to make sure he had not fallen asleep again. Harvey slowly got to his knees; the pain had dulled it throbbed in time with his heart beat and he did not yet walk until he was certain he could do it without looking funny. It had been well more than two decades since he'd gotten kicked in the groin since he normally got along famously with the ladies, unlike Louis. He vowed that when news got out about the apartment building fire debacle, he would be sure this part would be carefully edited out.

Right on cue, David poked his head out into the hallway. "Well?"

"I'm getting there. Now go away. I don't need your help and I don't want it," Harvey replied and he demonstrated this by finally getting to his feet and staggering over to his backpack and the flashlight that was still shining its beam down the hallway. In that time, David had crept back into his apartment and Harvey for once felt grateful to the man that he knew when back out of his personal space. By the time he entered, David was over in his rec room playing pool with Marcus and virtually everyone else was sprawled out on his couches, on the floor, or sitting in the bar area. The only anomaly he could find was that the girl who had lunged at the panicked when she had bolted was sitting on a bar stool, watching the pool game.

"Really? Pool in the dark? I can barely see which balls you guys have out on the table," the girl said, shaking her head and then she squinted her eyes at the table.

"That's half the fun," Marcus said to her. Then Harvey shined his light on the table and he sighed.

"I would just like to make it clear," Harvey started in a raised voice, "No one is to speak anything of what happened on this floor tonight. Got it?" He glanced around at some of the other people lying around but their energy was so low they were staring at him with dull eyes.

David chuckled as he waited for Marcus to find a good shot. "You're not the only person here with a reputation to lose after all the hysteria."

"Speak for yourself," the girl said. "Nice shot." Marcus had shot the cue ball to ricochet off the side and knock the ball number one into a middle pocket. When Harvey trained the light on her she gave him an exasperated look and said, "I'm not going to say anything. Or at least not speak any names; it'll still make a great story."

"Don't tell me you're a reporter."

"Game designer. I'm Alex."

Harvey made no reply and settled himself against the wall as David aimed the cue ball for a long shot and sunk it like a professional golfer sinks a putt. In no time at all, David was aiming for the eight ball while Marcus still had at least five balls left on the table. It took a couple of shots, but eventually David managed to put the eight ball in and Marcus sighed dramatically.

"I haven't played pool in years. I guess I should have seen that coming."

"Who's next?" David said, not bothering to keep the proud smile off of his face.

"Me!" Alex leapt from her chair with the excited energy of a child and gladly grabbed the pool cue Marcus handed to her.

This particular game was a bit more drawn out than the previous game and David actually found himself having to work to beat the girl who was likely thirty years his junior. Harvey couldn't help but smirk with pleasure that the doctor's luck had run dry.

"Okay, far corner pocket," Alex said, using her pool cue to clarify just which hole she was aiming for.

David snorted. "Ten bucks says you can't make that."

"I'll take that bet," Harvey replied and the doctor scowled at him. It was a tricky shot to make, requiring at least two precisely hit angles to get the ball in, but it was honestly the only shot available to her; she kept running her pool cue into the wall on any other shot, which made David frown at her every time.

"Get your wallet out, doctor. You're going to owe the lawyer," Alex said, and she flicked her eyes over to Harvey and gave him a confident smile, and then returned to aiming her cue just right. The shot was smooth and Alex watched it all with a smug grin and the cue held behind her neck, and then she held the cue up in the very same victory gesture as David when it knocked the eight ball straight in. "Yes! I rock!"

"Damn that was lucky," David huffed. He pulled out his wallet and pulled a ten out for Harvey, who took it with the air of someone accepting the winnings of a one hundred thousand dollar gamble.

"I should have raised the stakes," Harvey said with a sigh of regret. He checked his phone and was surprised to find that an hour had passed since they had started playing pool and 3:47 flashed at him. He quickly sent Donna and Jessica another text message: _'Still not rescued! Another couple of hours.'_

"I'm not letting you win anymore of my money tonight."

"All right, so who's playing me?"

David practically shoved the cue at him.

"Oh, I think Harvey wants to play. He needs to keep from falling asleep against the wall."

Harvey growled in frustration, but he dutifully started putting the balls back into the triangle. He needed some entertainment to keep his mind going which, with every passing second, felt like it was stuttering to a halt. As Alex was the winner, she broke the balls apart and he was impressed with the way they sprawled about the table; and two stripes fell into a pair of pockets.

_Shit. This is already turning into a lousy game, _Harvey thought. He clicked his tongue when Alex shot a third ball in as well.

Her fourth shot failed and he was finally able to strike a solid red that happened to be teetering on the edge of a hole. Further down there was another ball just a tap away from falling into a middle pocket and he brushed the cue ball past it just enough to make it fall in. _Well, I guess my start isn't so bad._ He managed to hit two more balls in before his run ended.

Alex whistled just as his phone vibrated. "Not half bad," she said, but there was still an amused smile on her face, not in the least bit worried about her chances.

Harvey pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen to see Donna had replied: _'At this rate you won't be out until the sun rises. Want me there to hand you breakfast and a coffee? It'll be just like old times!'_

'_That sounds incredible. Be here at 5. You don't seem to be getting much sleep.'_

Harvey was lining up for his next shot which was slightly tricky owing to the fact that the eight ball was just a hair breadth away from the ball he really wanted to hit. He hit the cue ball and hissed when the eight ball hit the siding at the edge of the pocket.

"Oooh lucky," Alex said with an admiring shake of her head.

"Hey!" They both jumped at David's voice. "You're not allowed to fall asleep out here. We'll be rescued soon. Just hang on already!"

"That wasn't luck. That was skill," Harvey replied to her with his usual smirk.

She gave him an arched expression and rolled her eyes at him before she started lining up her next shot.

Harvey's phone buzzed again and he pulled it out: _'I have this boss. He's in a dire situation and he keeps texting me. So annoying!' _

'_I'd put up with it. You might get a nice fat bonus out of paying attention to him,' _Harvey texted back to her. He sunk his fourth and his fifth solid ball on the table and smiled satisfactorily. He was back even with Alex. At the moment, the rest of the remaining balls were so widespread that she had no clear shot at anything and she had to study her angles before she finally chose a ball that would be a long shot to the end of the table. And she sank it.

_Damn, she's good,_ Harvey thought with a shake of his head. His phone buzzed and as Alex was aiming for her next shot he took the time to look at his phone: _'Hmm, you're right. That may be worth it.' _

'_Well, maybe just dinner.'_

'_Cheapskate.'_

"It's your turn," Alex said to him.

He looked back at the table and groaned. "Damn it. Seriously, one ball left? You left me no shots either."

"I know I'm good," Alex said, sounding just like him whenever he gloated about his 'best closer in the city' status. "Now hurry up! I wanna win."

Harvey sighed and looked at both of his shots. Neither one was near a pocket and from every single angle there were about three possibilities with a chance but just a flimsy one. He aimed at a green but as soon as he hit the cue ball he knew he hadn't quite hit it at the right angle and it barely missed its mark. Alex's last ball was parked right near a hole – how did she do that? – and then the eight ball was in the rough vicinity of another hole. He could see now the trajectory of her last shot, which would put her near enough to make a decent shot at the eight ball and win the game. The first ball went down with a 'thunk' and she now turned her eye on the eight ball with a smug smile. She shot the cue ball true and Harvey scowled as he saw the eight ball go straight to the hole. Then the cue ball fell directly into another and she sighed in frustration.

"What a buncha bullshit," she said. "Damn it! I was beating you!"

Harvey gave her a scowl in return and said, "I think it's a crappy rule. This doesn't feel like a legitimate win. It feels cheap."

"Rules are rules," David said. "Alex lost. Now who wants to play? Marcus?"

"No, I'd rather not get my ass kicked by Harvey," he said.

"All right then, I'll spare you the humiliation," David said and then started fishing out all the balls from the pockets for another game. Harvey just watched him and tried to size up the doctor. He was good, he had seen the game with Marcus and Alex, but she managed to beat him and he, Harvey, had at the very least kept up with Alex. They might be about evenly matched in skill. David, though, kept glancing up at him with a pleased smile that plainly said he was going to beat his ass.

This game started off _much_ slower than Harvey's game against Alex. They both made three balls in and then they hit a rough spot where they could not put anything in. After some more fooling around, Harvey finally broke out of limbo and made two more balls in at once and he threw David an innocent look that said 'What was that about beating me?' David followed him up with two more balls of his own and then Harvey fell right back into his funk and was not hitting anything quite right. He said nothing about the missed shots, but then he also seemed to spend quite a bit more time trying to focus on the balls, especially in this poor lighting. He was getting tired again and it was clear just by how sloppy his shots were.

David continued to hit them in after the initial funk but on his last ball he was having trouble getting it into an angle where it could be made. David spent so long putting it in that Harvey caught back up with him again until they both only had one ball left and he missed his shot.

"Oh c'mon, get in there," Harvey said but the ball only hit near the edge and spun a little.

"You're still in better position than I am," David said to him and he started clicking his teeth together as he weighed his options.

"What's that noise?" Alex asked.

Harvey and David both looked up to see she was glancing toward the door and her shoulders were tensed like she expected an attack. It took some time but after a moment, Harvey could hear thumping and thudding and….voices? He glanced at the clock on his phone and noticed that it was in fact 5:00am exactly and he let out a sigh of relief.

"The rescue team?" Marcus asked.

"It is five in the morning," Harvey replied. "This better be them. I've had enough of this waiting around."

As if on cue, there was a knock at David's door and everyone in the room sat up straight and stared intently on the door when it finally opened and revealed a suited up man with a mask. Several people leapt up from their chairs, grabbed their stuff and immediately ran to the firefighters. Alex jumped off her chair and pumped her fist into the air before she got her collection of backpack, purse, and laptop bag together.

"Finally," Harvey said and also made to grab his backpack.

"Thank God," Marcus also said and the man had his hands up like he was just about to be raptured.

David was beside himself. "God damn it! I had you! I was just about to beat you! We should have placed money on the match."

"To hell with that," Harvey replied. "I don't care anymore, I just want to go somewhere and sleep now."

The front firefighter held up his hands to keep back the tide of eager people ready to leave and he said, "We know you're all eager to finally leave, but we need to inform you of the proper way to exit the building. Please go down the stairs quickly and quietly, but one at a time. We do not need a stampede. The fire was in the stairwell, so we tried to clear out as much of the smoke as we could, but it's completely covered in residue. If you have something to put over your face, I suggest you wear it. Now let's –"

"Excuse me, sir, but we've had a little trouble with remaining calm on this floor." David gave the woman in question a particularly pointed glare and she seemed to shrink at it. "There might be a few panicked individuals."

"There is no need to panic. You will make it out of here alive. The building's structure has been determined to be sound, the fire's are out. All you need to do is walk downstairs."

Harvey grimaced when he finally walked into the stairwell. The walls, the railing were all scored black with a heavy ash and when he inhaled he immediately launched into a coughing fit. It took him a moment to get control of his lungs and then he tried to keep from rubbing his eyes at the sting of the leftover smoke that still hung in the air. The trip down twenty flights of stairs felt like it took forever and the smoke clogged and burned his air passages and his eyes until he felt tears involuntarily leaking out. He could tell when they reached the sixth and fifth floors because the carpet had been completely eaten away by the fire, the charred doors barely hung on their hinges, and the stairwell walls were completely blackened and burned. When they did clear the fifth floor, Harvey breathed in the amazingly fresh air that floated through the open windows in the stairwell. He scrubbed at his eyes with a closed fist to get the last of the residue from his eyes, and then they finally burst out into the early morning air.

He had to shut his eyes against the painfully bright spotlights that lit the area, having been in darkness for so long and when his eyes finally adjusted he was met with an army of paramedics, policemen and firefighters. The paramedics rushed him and one of them said, "Sir, we would like to examine you to make sure there is no reason to send you for further medical treatment.

Harvey stared at the man and waved away the flashlight that one of them had to check his pupils. "What? Did you think I was trapped in a hallway with flames? I'm fine! Leave me alone."

"Sir, the owner of the building insists that all of his tenants get checked over before they are released."

"If there is a problem created by him with this fire – which there shouldn't be – then a simple check-up will _not_ save him from liability," Harvey snapped and tried to pull away.

"Sir, please, we _must_ check you over."

"I don't care. The only thing I need is sleep!"

"And some hot coffee, right?"

Harvey stared and blinked a few times in the bright light. Donna in a pair of jeans, a red t-shirt, and a blue jacket suddenly seemed to appear right before his eyes, holding a paper sack and a coffee in her hand like always. He cocked his head at her.

"You're not a hallucination, right?"

"You're lucky. I got here five minutes ago," Donna replied.

He made a grab for the coffee but she held it out of his reach. "Ah ah, Harvey, let the nice paramedics examine you and then I'll give you breakfast."

Harvey gave her a pained expression. "Doooooonnna! I haven't eaten since Thursday! Hand it over."

She narrowed her eyes. "What about that wrap I gave you yesterday. Oh wait, let me guess…"

"I had more pressing issues to focus on."

Donna sighed, and then she summoned up her angriest and most commanding expression and said, "Harvey Specter, you will let yourself be examined by the paramedics or I will tell the entire office you cried like a little girl when Bambi's mother was shot."

He glared at her. "Fine."

The person who held the eye light finally came in and when they shined it in to examine his pupils, he involuntarily pulled away and snapped his eye shut feeling the burn right into his brain. "The other eye." He tried to keep his left eye open but the burning was unbearable and it felt like it lasted forever before the man pulled away.

"Well, your pupils are slow to contract."

"I'm very tired."

He recoiled again when the woman brushed against the bruise that was no doubt forming above his eye. The medic gave him a questioning look, but he refused to elaborate further on the bruise. "A contusion around the eye, but nothing appears to be broken."

The same paramedic was handed a stethoscope and Harvey was told to take several deep breaths before the woman declared, "Your lungs sound good. Breathing is normal." She checked his pulse on his wrist and glanced at the watch on her wrist as she did so, "Pulse is a little high –"

"I just ran down twenty flights of stairs."

"– but to be expected," the woman finished and gave him an indignant glare while writing down her observations on a slip of paper. Donna frowned severely at him and looked about ready to smack him upside the head.

He sighed when he saw them dig out the blood pressure cuff and he held out his arm for them to do the procedure. He could feel his shoulders and his head starting to slump from exhaustion again and he closed his eyes while he waited for them to finish the routine. He didn't even open them when he felt a hand on his back rubbing circles between his shoulder blades.

"C'mon, Harvey, just a little bit longer. You can stand a few more minutes," Donna said. His only response was to bring his hand up to squeeze her shoulder.

"120/70. As far as these measurements go, you appear to be perfectly healthy."

"As I said."

"Harvey, stop antagonizing the medical staff. They're just doing their jobs," Donna said. She smiled at the disgruntled paramedics and said, "Thank you." Then she picked up the coffee from the ground and shoved it into his hand and he took an extremely generous swig of it. "Bottom's up."

He lowered the cup with his eyes closed in contentment and when he finally focused on her again, he said, "You have no idea how long I have been waiting for that."

Even after the brief stint of liveliness, Donna could see him slumping yet again and she grabbed his arm to start leading him away from the crowd. "We better get you back to my place before you fall asleep in the street."

"I really hope I don't look as exhausted as I feel."

"Harvey, you passed looking exhausted six hours ago. You look more like a zombie for Michael Jackson's _Thriller_, especially since you managed to smear soot all over your face."

"What? When did that happen?"

"It must have been when you ran your hand through your hair," she said.

He glanced down at the palms of his hands and found them to be completely blackened with soot. Now that he thought about it, he vaguely remembered running his hand through his hair sometime when he was in the stairwell and he undoubtedly got the ash from the hand railing. _Well, crap, _he thought. He really needed some sleep.

Just as they were about to exit the crowd and head down the block to a street that wasn't closed, a generous amount of shouting attracted his attention and he dragged Donna along to investigate.

David, Alex, and a few more people he did not recognize were standing on one side of an argument with a person that Harvey took a moment to recall was the landlord of the building. A police officer was standing between David and Mr. James Hofferson, holding both of them apart as they shouted at the other.

"You are liable for this! Don't think we won't sue your ass over this –"

"It's a non-issue. There is nothing to be done here. You were not hurt in the fire!"

"You think that matters?"

"It always matters! The judge will barely glance at your case before – !"

"There may not be criminal intent here but there's enough to point to negligence," David said and everyone behind him nodded and mumbled assent.

"What's going on here?" Harvey asked. He could sense Donna standing behind him with her arms crossed and an exasperated expression on her face, but though she kept silent he could have sworn he heard her say 'workaholic.'

Hofferson glanced to him and his grin immediately split wide open. "Mr. Specter! You've always been a loyal tenant. Surely you could understand the desire not to sue me. I would go bankrupt and the building would be shut down. You'd lose your condo."

Alex laughed. "Are you honestly trying to butter Mr. Specter up? I'm pretty sure I just got done playing pool with him after we were forced to wait four hours to be rescued from a burning building. I can't imagine he'd be much happier to learn about the wrongs that have been done here."

Harvey glared at Hofferson for a moment and then turned to the group of tenants and said, "You have one minute to tell me what's wrong."

Everyone glanced to David so, as per usual, he took point: "Our dear landlord here failed to see that the batteries were changed in all of the fire alarms. There were at least two alarms on the fifth floor that didn't have batteries at all! Ten people were killed in the fire, seven of them from the 5th floor."

The news made Harvey's blood run cold and he glanced at the landlord and shook his head at him. "That may not be criminal intent, but it's certainly criminal negligence. Dig yourself out. I'm not helping you."

"You want to join the lawsuit?" Alex asked.

"No. I am going to move." He turned to walk away.

"Bye then," Alex replied cheerfully.

When Harvey saw how pale she appeared under her freckles, he said "You don't need to look so worried, Don. I am still alive."

"Well, I think you should probably reconsider joining the lawsuit, but only once you've caught back up on your sleep. You look like hell."

He didn't have the energy to reply anymore. Donna even had to be the one to hail the cab and he was never so grateful to climb in and finally relax.

* * *

><p><strong>Once again, thank you all for reading and thank you again for the reviews! They inspire me. =)<strong>


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Very sorry about the wait! You guys are awesome for being patient. =) I got caught up writing another Suits fanfic, but that won't be posted until it's done. Thank you very much for your patience and feedback! **  
><strong>**  
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**Chapter 4**

"The Great Harvey Specter: chased out of his condo by a fire and now looking like death warmed over," Donna said as he rather vacantly stared out towards the windshield. The darkness had been replaced by the orange fire of the sunlight as it spilled between the buildings and onto the street.

He slowly turned his gaze to her, before it abruptly snapped down to the paper bag in her hands and he snatched it from her grasp. He tore the bag open in his veracity and immediately started taking large bites out of the sandwich. It was lukewarm by this time, but to Harvey it tasted like heaven.

"Good God, Harvey, you're going to choke to death if you keep eating like that," Donna said. She couldn't help but grimace as he continued to wolf down the food heedless of her words. He had never looked so frayed around the edges and it was pretty clear that he was past caring about appearances and was looking only to address his needs. "Harvey, promise me that you will never look this bad again?"

"Mrrrmph." Or something to that effect. He was too busy taking another bite of her sandwich to answer properly but the look in his eyes said he wished not to relive the experience again either.

"Oh, I better call Mike and Jessica to tell them you're fine," she said and pulled out her phone. She hesitated at first who to call and finally decided on the associate.

"Donna! It's been ages! Have you heard from Harvey yet?" Mike's voice seemed far too energetic for half past five and she had to hold the phone away from her ear. Harvey couldn't keep from laughing at this. "He only sent me, like, two text messages and then I hadn't heard from him in ages. I was just about ready to call him, but it seemed a little weird to call after your own boss to make sure he's okay –"

"Mike?"

" – I don't suppose you'd find it weird. You've known Harvey for, well, okay, a long time. He probably doesn't mind you getting into his personal boundaries – "

"Mike!"

"Yeah?"

By this time, Harvey was laughing so hard, his shoulders were shaking and he was trying to keep from spitting the chunk of sandwich he had in his mouth. Donna just gave him an eye roll before focusing back on the conversation. "I'm with Harvey now. He's perfectly fine. You can go to sleep now," she said and she sighed heavily at Harvey.

"All right, all right. Tell him I'm glad he's okay! He can't die on me; I need a job."

Donna snorted once the line was disconnected and she said, "He tries so hard to be like you, but he never will."

"I don't know," Harvey finally said, just about ready to pop the last bite of bagel, bacon, and egg into his mouth. "He's been picking up on all of my movie references lately. And dropping some of his own. He could get there someday."

Donna gave him a knowing look. "He'll never be like you, Harvey. Because there's only one of you."

"He'll be a good lawyer though," Harvey said as he once again leaned back against the seat with his eyes only half-open, smiling contentedly. "I would never mentor anyone who wouldn't be a success."

"You keep telling yourself that," Donna said and she watched as his eyes flutter shut. "Ah, ah, Harvey. I can't carry you up to my apartment."

She almost laughed at what sounded a little like a whimper as he looked over at her with the most sorrowful expression she had ever seen on his face. "You have no idea how many times I got that while we were waiting for rescue. 'Don't fall asleep, Specter, you could die of smoke inhalation.'"

"I should send that nice doctor some flowers for making sure I don't wind up working for Louis."

Harvey gave her a strange look and said, "That's exactly what Mike said. Besides, you wouldn't be shifted to be Louis' responsibility. You'd probably replace Jessica's secretary."

"One can only hope."

The taxi finally pulled in front of Donna's apartment; Harvey pulled the door handle, kicked it open, and was already half way around the car before Donna even got her door open and she stared after him with one eyebrow up. She paid the fare and couldn't keep from smirking as he leaned against the door waiting for her to buzz them in. The elevator ride and walk down to her door were done in a comfortable silence, but Donna couldn't keep from snickering when Harvey pushed in front of her to get into the apartment first.

"Wow, where did your chivalry go? Even I thought Mike might let me in first."

"Chivalry was appropriate at 9 pm last night, when I left the office. It went out the window when I tackled a hyperventilating woman who proceeded to kick me in the family jewels." Harvey sighed with relief when he proceeded to sit down on Donna's couch and he leaned his head back to close his eyes with the smile of a cat who'd found the cream. He noticed Donna's incredulous look and he said, "That is an unfortunately very true story."

"Sore, Harvey?" Donna couldn't suppress a giggle.

"Laugh it up. I wouldn't laugh if someone kicked you in the groin."

"That's because I tend to do the groin-kicking," Donna said. As she walked behind her couch to the kitchen, she couldn't resist running her hands through Harvey's hair and she grinned when she felt him lean into her brief touch.

She went into her laundry room to pull out a ragged towel and then she stood patiently at her sink waiting for the water to get beyond lukewarm. "Okay, Harvey, just try to stay awake for just a little bit longer. I won't have you leaving handprints all over my furniture like some grease monkey – " Donna's voice trailed away as she came back and found that Harvey had fallen fast asleep in the time it had taken her to get back from the kitchen. She came up behind him and started gently dabbing at the grease marking across his forehead and around his right eye.

He never even twitched.

Donna went around the couch to take his hand and scrubbed vigorously at the greasy stain, but even then Harvey did not wake or stir. It was only after she managed to get the right hand clean that she decided checking his pulse might be a good idea, but she found it strong and sleep-slowed. She moved to the other side of his couch and gave his left hand the same treatment and still he never even moved.

Now that he was still and cleaned of all the ash, she got her first real look at him and she finally grimaced now that he was no longer awake to see her judgment of him. While she certainly had made it no secret that he looked like hell, she did not quite let on just how…_ill_ he was looking. His pale skin had a gray pallor that was not a result of the ash and in the early morning light, both of his eyes made it look like he had just survived a bar fight. Even so, his left eye was more bruised than the other and she reached up to run a finger along the dark blue skin around his eye socket. And still Harvey gave no sign her touch was causing him pain.

"You really should be careful about running yourself ragged, Harvey," Donna whispered. "Mike, Jessica, they're depending on you to stay strong. Crap, I still need to call Jessica." She got up to head to the kitchen but hesitated just a moment before she quickly stooped and placed a kiss on her boss' forehead. She was almost disappointed when she saw, yet again, that there was no reaction.

Putting her concern for Harvey to the back of her mind, she snatched her phone up from her purse and found Jessica's number. It only rang twice, until she answered it. "Donna, I'm assuming you have good news."

"I do. Harvey is definitely alive and is currently passed out on my couch," she replied matter-of-factly.

Jessica chuckled and said, "That sounds like something Harvey would do. Did you hear anything about how the fire may have started?"

"No. All I know was that it started on the 5th floor and moved swiftly enough to the 6th that no one above floor eight could escape until the fires were out. Ten people, most of them on the 5th floor, were killed. Many of the tenants are already trying to organize a lawsuit against the landlord because he failed to change the batteries in many of the fire alarms."

There was a momentary pause over the phone and then Jessica spoke up again, "Well, we may offer the services of Pearson Hardman to see this lawsuit through if it comes to that. Do you know Harvey's thoughts on the matter?"

"Nope," Donna said. "His brain is fried. I don't even think he's completely processed what the tenants even told him. I can only speculate on what he'll do."

"You know him better than anyone else. Speculate."

Donna quirked her mouth into a pleased smile and said, "All right then. Harvey may be interested in the details of the case, but he may not join as a client. You know him: he wouldn't be interested in the money, just the sense of justice. That wrongful deaths have been righted as much as they can be. He may very well try to convince the police to pursue criminal charges. Or the family of the victims. Then Mike and I will accuse him of caring and then Harvey will respond, and I quote, 'This isn't about them, it's about me! I could have died in that fire just as easily as they did. You bet your ass I care about my wellbeing. I still haven't slept with enough women.'" When Donna finished with her impersonation of her own boss, she thought she could hear Jessica trying to keep from laughing if the low rumble of her chuckles was anything to go by. "All right, so maybe that last sentence isn't so much what he'll say, but we'll still know he's lying and life goes on."

"I can see he's not fooling anyone he has prolonged exposure to. You might warn him about that."

"I would, but then I might never see his human side," Donna replied with a slight pout.

"For all he throws around that big dog-puppy analogy, he's still a golden retriever at heart."

"I don't know about golden retriever. Maybe German Shepherd. Without a doubt, he's fierce," Donna replied. She glanced out into the living room at Harvey and then she said to Jessica, "I'm going to go check on Harvey and make sure he's still breathing. The man sleeps like the dead."

"Very well. Take care of him, Donna."

"I will. Oh! Before you go, just to make it clear, I reserve the right to call us both in sick on Monday if I think he hasn't had enough sleep."

"Done," Jessica replied without hesitation.

Donna beamed. She now hoped Harvey would be ill enough to need Monday off, just so she could pull out her leverage and hang it over his head. It wasn't often she had the opportunity to go over his head with permission from his boss.

She disconnected the phone line and let her eyes slide over to Harvey with a triumphant smirk. Slowly, she got up from the kitchen table and slowly walked back over to the couch and bent over next to his head, where she heard the very soft inhales and exhales of his lungs. Just to be sure his body was sleeping, she checked his pulse and found that it had not changed from earlier.

This time he was not completely still; she could see his eyes moving beneath his eyelids. After studying him a moment longer, she whispered into his ear, "You better not be dreaming of me in a Catholic School girl outfit or I would do more than kick you in the balls."

There was no reaction and she finally went back into the kitchen to read the newspaper. She could not refrain from glancing at Harvey every five minutes or so and then when the newspaper was finally exhausted she scowled over at him. "Damn it, Harvey, you're ruining my routine. Normally I'd be watching crappy reruns of Judge Judy that I recorded for the last week, but I guess I can't do that with you sleeping." With a frustrated sigh, she walked into her bedroom and sifted through her book shelf for some novel to read, finally settled on Stephen King's _It_, and settled on her bed for a prolonged reading session.

She was only stirred from her reading when she heard Harvey sneeze; she waited with bated breath and silently watched her door for any activity. After a few minutes she returned to reading her book when suddenly she heard him:

"Oh shit. Donna! Help!"

She smirked and strolled out into the living room. "What's wrong, Harvey? Did you drool all over your sh – " Her voice died away when Harvey turned to her and she stopped dead in her tracks and stared. His hands were cupped to his nose but even from ten feet away, she could see the blood oozing out between his fingers and dripping down his Harvard shirt.

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thank you for reading and thank you again for your reviews!<strong>


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **The update! Enjoy! And you thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! =)

**I do not own Suits.  
><strong>

**Chapter 5**

"What the hell did you do to yourself?" Donna screamed at him when she finally managed to pry his hands from his face only to discover he was having nothing more than a substantial nose bleed. "Pick your nose? Have a run in with the door? Get punched in the face?"

Harvey gave her a bald look and said, "No" but it came out sounding like 'dough!'

She ran to her laundry room to grab yet another towel and also to hide the laughter that was threatening to burst out of her, which she knew was likely not what Harvey needed at the moment.

"I can hear you laughing in there," Harvey yelled in the living room.

She couldn't restrain herself any longer and collapsed into silent giggles on her kitchen floor, struggling to pull herself together. Reaching up to grab a towel, she deliberately dug her teeth into her bottom lip and pulled her neutral face on. She prided herself on her acting skills so after another thirty seconds of controlling her face, she came back out to throw a towel in his face. "Well, I think you can take care of it. And try not to get any on my couch or I may have to bill you."

"I appreciate the sacrifice you're making here," Harvey said, momentarily taking away the towel to wipe the blood off of his hands. Even as he did so, she could see blood still draining from his nose and he immediately it away and pinched his nose.

Donna sat next to him on her couch and waited patiently for the bleeding to stop. Although it was hard to tell with his face stained in blood, she felt he looked considerably healthier after his five hour power nap. There probably would have been more color to his face if it hadn't just drained out onto his t-shirt, but he was looking better. He would _be_ better once the nose bleed stopped, too.

She snapped out of her study of him when he groaned and let his head fall back on his couch. The bleeding had not lasted very long, but his eyes were reddened with irritation and drooping again; his sinuses sounded clogged and he said, "This weekend sucks."

"Have you _ever_ gotten a nosebleed?" Donna asked. She couldn't resist wiping away the stray strands of hair on his forehead.

"Maybe once when someone threw a baseball at my face," Harvey replied. "But that was back in high school. I don't think I've had any since."

"Well, what would cause your nosebleed now? Usually it happens when your nose is irritated or it's too dry…"

"The smoke residue," Harvey suddenly said and he coughed as if to emphasize its effect. "It stung my eyes and burned my nose and throat."

"You sneezed right before you screamed like a little girl," Donna said. "What are you interested in doing next? Showering?" She glanced at his bloodied face and his ash-ridden and blood soaked Harvard t-shirt with an extremely pointed look.

He looked down at his Harvard shirt and plucked at it in disgust before he lie his head back again and said, "Damn it! I liked this shirt. What do you think the school would say if I tell them I bled all over it?" He at the very least was wearing an amused grin at the very thought and then he actually seemed to be contemplating the answer to her question. After a moment he said, "I think I better eat first. I feel like I'm in the beginning stages of Parkinson's Disease." He held up his hand horizontally and she could see it visibly trembling.

"Fine. Food. What do you want?"

"Scrambled eggs and bacon," he said without missing a beat and she could see a spark light in his eyes as if the very words gave him energy.

"All right then. I'll make it as quickly as I can, majesty. But first…" She got up and headed to the kitchen yet again to grab a third towel and soaked it in the sink. Once she wrung out the water, she rolled the towel into a ball and hurled it at him. She was almost disappointed when he – even caught off guard – managed to reach up and snatch out of the air before it hit his face with just one hand. "You are _not_ going to sit at my kitchen table looking like a zombie who just feasted on a freshly killed corpse."

She smiled cheerily when she could hear his bright laughter from the living room.

Fifteen minutes later she was just finishing up the bacon and eggs when he walked into the kitchen and pulled a chair out to sit down. Saving the last of the bacon before it charred, she whirled around and pointed at him. "Ah, ah, Harvey. I refuse to serve this food until you change out of that God awful shirt."

He rolled his eyes and groaned at her ultimatum. "Donna, you're killing me!"

"No! It makes you look dead. Change it!"

"I've only got two more shirts," he whined as he shuffled back out into the living room where he'd dumped his backpack.

"Then maybe you should have packed more. Now strip," she said with a sweet smile, but there was fire in her eyes.

Harvey had a small smile on his face but she could not quite decipher the look he was giving right back at her. "I should have known you would be the commanding one in the bedroom," he replied and then he pulled his shirt off.

She did her best to keep her expression as painfully neutral as possible, but she wouldn't deny that a shirtless Harvey was a hot Harvey. As little as she may see Harvey shirtless, she could see the subtle changes that she knew hadn't been there three weeks ago: his ribs were a little more prominent and she could see a bruise of a lovely shade of green blossoming on his left side. He had a clean shirt in his hand and he seemed to be waiting for a response her with a knowing smile and an expectant look. She forced herself to make eye contact.

"I don't care how hot you think you are, but you're not sitting at my table shirtless," Donna replied.

He winced and said, "Don't worry, I learned years ago never to sit at the table shirtless. My mother almost scalped me the only time I tried."

"Good for her," Donna said, her smile now turned smug. "Because odds are if you're a guy and you're shirtless, you've been doing something stinky and smelly. So?"

"Mowing the lawn," he replied.

"I'm right again. Now I approve of your wear. You can eat now," she said and headed back into the kitchen, dishing herself out portion. "Feel free to take the rest."

"Do I have to actually put it on a dish? I could save you some dish washing."

"Don't be a troll, Harvey."

He smirked at her as he took everything she had cooked up and proceeded to wolf it down as if he expected it to be taken from him.

"Expecting to be executed, Harvey? You're eating like it's going to be your last meal."

She desperately wished she had a camera on her when he looked up at her with the biggest puppy eyes he could give and said, "My last meal was on Thursday and it was a hamburger from McDonalds! _That_ almost became my last meal."

"You didn't even come close to dying."

"That's still a ridiculously pathetic meal. I hate McDonalds," he said, giving her a pained look.

"Well, next time you better eat the wrap I give you so that crappy fast food can never be your last meal."

Harvey crunched his last piece of bacon and then he set his dish in the sink and turned to ask Donna, "Shower?"

"Go on. You're starting to smell like a real life Pig Pen."

He wrinkled his nose at her and said, "Jesus, you're volatile today. Did my fire mishap ruin that much of your beauty sleep?"

"I think I told you before: Mike did. Both of you came off as little boys begging for mom's attention. You at least found something else to do between our conversations," Donna said with a long sigh.

"I should have known that was why he wasn't talking my ear off," Harvey said as he rubbed his chin with a look of mock concern.

She gave him a withering look. "I hope you have to use my shampoo."

"Aw, I actually remember my shampoo."

Donna narrowed her eyes at him, vowing revenge, as he left the kitchen with a triumphant smirk on his face. It was when she was washing dishes that a brilliant idea came to her and she immediately grabbed her phone. Certainly, she would suffer too, but that it only mattered that Harvey did as well.

"Donna, what's wrong?"

"Hi, Mike. Nothing's wrong. I need you to pick up some stuff for dinner tonight."

"Yeah, sure. Okay. I'll drop off whatever you need."

"Don't be ridiculous, Mike. If I have to feed Harvey then it's not much of a stretch to feed you."

"Wow, thanks, Donna. Just let me know what you need."

_I almost feel sorry for Harvey, _she thought.

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><p><strong>Aww...poor Mike. But Harvey and Donna aren't <em>that<em> mean. Once again, thank you all for your feedback and for reading! I hope you continue to enjoy the story. =)**


	7. Chapter 6

**I do not own Suits.  
><strong>

**Chapter 6**

Mike's eyes lit up when the door was opened, as though he had expected to be played.

"Donna! Hi, I brought everything you asked for – "

"Mike! Shhh…" Donna said, putting a finger to her lips. She gestured behind her with her head and opened the door wider.

He stepped, through with a chastised expression. "Sorry," he whispered, "Harvey's sleeping then? How is he? I never actually talked to him."

"Mike, he's fine. He was just denied sleep an extra eight hours after the case. Let him rest and you won't have to worry about him firing you over the tiniest thing," she replied, grabbing the pair of plastic bags that he was carrying for her and dropped them on the counter in her kitchen.

The young associate lingered for a little bit longer on the living room, zoning in on a dark room with the door cracked where he could see a man with spiky dark brown hair and one arm hanging over the edge of the bed. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing aloud, never failing to be surprised that Harvey was human, despite very well knowing that.

When he finally made it to the kitchen, he asked, "You let Harvey sleep in your bed?"

"Yes," she replied, giving him a bald look of exasperation. "It's much better for his shoulder, which I can tell was hurting him. He was _sitting_ on my couch and slept for five hours earlier this morning. He's earned a bed."

Mike met her reply with amused skepticism and simply shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say. He's already been asleep for five hours? What a wuss! I'd still be powering through paperwork at the firm on my second sleepless night."

She glared at Mike. "Well, excuse me, Michael, he's not as young as he used to be. And if I remember correctly, he sent you home last week after two days of no sleep. Besides," and she raised her chin up, "what are the odds you would have dissolved into a panicked hysterical mess if your apartment building was on fire?"

"Hey, I was just kidding," he replied, holding his hands and giving her his best pair of puppy eyes until finally her frown reformed into a smile. His smile became less enthusiastic and he ran a hand through his hair when he said, "And you're probably right. I would melt into a huge hysterical mess if I knew there was a fire in my building. You told me it was about fifteen floors below where Harvey was stuck, right?"

"Yes. The worst they got was smoke residue or so I heard. He _was_ lucky though. Ten people were reportedly killed by the fire," she said, drawing her lips in a concerned line.

Mike gaped at her in a mixture of shock and horror and he shuddered. "Damn, that's terrible. I'm glad Harvey's okay. I kind of saw him there sleeping in your bedroom – okay, so I barely saw his face – but he looked pretty normal."

Donna snorted as she headed out into the living room to sit down and watch some more tv. "You should have seen him this morning, before his shower. He was pale, covered head to toe in soot, and then he got a nose bleed. A heavy nose bleed." Mike gaped at her. "He looked like he might've had a run in with Rocky in a dark alley. I wish I could've gotten a picture."

"Are you serious? That could actually be pretty cool. I wish you would have taken a picture. I would have definitely made that the picture on my desktop. Or I might have done that with his laptop! Prove he's not always sharp and slick in his power suit 24/7," Mike said to her and he was grinning mischievously at her once again. She couldn't keep from smiling at the twinkle that often appeared in his eye whenever he was in a good mood. It was infectious.

"Now, you've seen Harvey. You better be sure you don't call me at all tonight unless there's a legitimate emergency or I might have to drown you in your own sink," Donna said, jabbing a finger into Mike's chest.

He had the decency to appear abashed and he mumbled, "I'm sorry. I was just worried. You've already seen how I deal with a crisis."

"Well, pup, you're going to have to learn to deal with crisis in a better fashion. A law firm, especially Pearson Hardman, isn't going to want you devolving into a panicked mess every time a wrench is thrown into your plans."

"But Donna," Mike said, giving her another patented sad puppy eyes, "plenty of emergencies have popped up while I've been working for Harvey and even on some of my pro bono cases. I kept my cool."

"I'm just saying, Mike," Donna replied with a hard look on her face. "Harvey won't be around forever to direct you through your career, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for the advice," he said. "So, what's on tv?"

"Nothing. Except Bath Crashers on the DIY network. That'll have to do."

Two hours later, not only did Mike think he could probably tackle a bathroom with decent taste, but also a basement. They both made comments on the finishing touches, Donna often wrinkling her nose at some of the color choices, occasionally lamenting about the tile and flooring. When they hit a kitchen episode she made a disgusted noise and said, "Those cabinets are so cheap!"

"So, do you like renovating houses then?" Mike asked, trying his best to actually watch the shows but his absolute disinterest in the subject was making him cross-eyed.

"When I was young, my parents would buy houses and flip them. My sister and I were often the hired help. When you have to sit through the long process of a house flip, you get a better understanding and appreciation for the process," Donna said, smiling at Mike's obvious boredom.

"So, have you done anything to this place?"

"Oh hell no! Not only would I expect my landlord to pay for it, but it would require the coordination of all my neighbors and I don't think they would disrupt their lives. I did paint the entire apartment though. I tricked Harvey into helping me. Speak of the Devil."

Harvey had shuffled into the room, rubbing his eyes blearily, and then he sat down next to Donna. They waited a minute for a greeting, but none came and Donna poked him instead and asked, "Is he sleep walking?"

"No, I'm not sleep walking," Harvey replied. When he had blinked a few more times, his eyes fell on Mike and he stared. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"It's nice to see you too, Harvey. I'm glad you escaped that fire in one piece; it would be sad to lose the best closer in the city," Mike said with a purposely oblivious smile hitched onto his face. "Donna asked me to pick up some things for dinner tonight and invited me to stay. That's why I am here."

Harvey listened to the puppy babble and huffed when he heard he was staying for dinner and he said, with a suspicious glare at Donna, "Oh, I don't think that's the only reason you're here."

Mike blinked at him and then his eyes widened and the color seemed to drain from his face. "Wha – ? No, no! It's not like that all! I mean, you know, I – I already have a girlfrie –"

Donna fixed the associated with a glare and said, "Mike Ross, you do not want to finish that sentence!"

He stopped speaking so abruptly there was an audible click of his jaws and he leaned away as though he were trying to melt into the easy chair he was resting in.

"That's _not_ to what I was referring to," Harvey said, but he was grinned wickedly at Mike, "stupid puppy."

Donna socked him in the arm and he rubbed the spot, but he was still grinning and he couldn't help nudging her with his elbow.

"So, anything decent on TV?"

"Nothing," Donna said. Mike looked as if he'd had his mouth glued shut and he kept looking at Harvey cross-ways.

"Then why don't we watch a movie? I do not want to learn those stupid Progressive Insurance commercials by heart."

"You don't like Flo, Harvey?" Mike asked and he was clearly trying to keep from laughing.

Harvey made a noise of repulsion. "Oh hell no! Get her off the screen!"

Donna smirked and mercifully turned on her DVD player. Both Mike and Harvey sighed with relief but when she did not get up to put in a movie, her boss asked, "So then, are we just going to watch a black screen?"

"Be patient, Harvey. Good things come to those who wait," she said patronizingly and patted him on the head. "You've got great hair going on there by the way." Harvey grabbed her hand deliberately to pull it away when she tried to muss it up, making it spikier than ever.

"You've got that Edward Cullen look going on there," Mike said. The associate began to laugh until they both looked at him and then his mouth snapped shut again.

"No, I'd say he's more of Calvin's evil twin brother."

Harvey frowned at her. "Calvin was good?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Ooooh, Aliens," Harvey said as she pressed play. "I didn't know you were a sci-fi girl."

"It depends. Usually I like my crappy sci-fis on the Syfy channel. This one…I was really bored last weekend."

Harvey just grunted and lay down on one side of the couch. The room fell quiet as the movie played and then a few minutes later a cell phone went off on Donna's coffee table. Harvey frowned as he snatched it up and he answered it, "Harvey Specter."

"Mr. Specter, this is Tory Doloni. I've been put in charge of trying to get a hold of all of the tenants at the Hofferson apartment complex."

"Yeah, I live there. And so?"

"I just wished to inform you that the building will be open for tenants to return to if you need to prepare for the work week."

"That's good to know," he said.

"You should make arrangements to stay somewhere for a few more days because the building is not quite habitable. The electricity is still out and I've been told the repairs for that will commence on Monday and should hopefully be finished by Tuesday. They still need to assess the extent of the damage before they can replace the wires."

"Fine. Thanks for the information." He snapped the cell shut and yawned. "Well, they're letting us back into our apartments tomorrow, but I still need a place to stay because it has been ruled inhabitable."

"Is it that bad?"

"No power."

"Yeah, I'd say that's pretty inhabitable."

"I'd appreciate your help getting some of my things out of there, but I think I'll be getting a hotel room."

"Oh, am I not hospitable enough for you?"

"I just figured you'd want to save your reputation on Monday. It wouldn't look good for you if Ray dropped us both off that morning," Harvey replied.

"That's easily remedied." He raised his eyebrows at her and she continued, "We don't have to arrive in the same vehicle."

"That's wasteful."

"Not half as wasteful as you staying in a hotel room when you've got my perfectly good couch to sleep on."

He was looking at her with one of his partially concealed smiles and said, "All right, we'll do it your way."

Donna beamed and made to start playing the movie again when Mike said, "Hey, if you need help getting some of your things, I'll volunteer."

Harvey stared at him as if he had an ulterior motive, but then he shrugged his shoulders and said, "If you really, truly want to help, feel free to come over."

The movie was started again and for a while, everyone was quietly engrossed, and then some time later Donna stirred. She used Harvey's hip to leverage herself up onto her feet. He twisted around to watch her go into the kitchen and he said, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To fix dinner. It wasn't hard to hear the activity of your stomach. It'll take about an hour or so."

"Mike, help her."

"Aye aye, Captain."

"No, Mike you will stay where you are. You're both my guests. I can stand to cook one dinner. Tomorrow though, Harvey, you may have to provide," she called out to him.

He yelled back, "That's why they have Chinese takeout!"

"Oh, don't put any effort into dinner for me," she called back sarcastically.

Harvey only smiled and was watching the movie again. After a while, the men were both distracted at the wonderful smells wafting from the kitchen. He noticed Mike was wriggling in his chair as if he was trying to contain himself from heading to the kitchen to start helping himself, but as much as his stomach was gurgling, Harvey had never felt lazier in his life. According to his own calculations, he'd had eight hours of sleep and yet he still felt drowsy and his legs felt leaden. He went to the gym three nights a week, but at the moment it felt like every little action could bring an onset of crippling exhaustion that made him want to sleep away for hours. His good spirits from earlier dwindled and he sighed heavily.

"Is something wrong, Harvey?" Mike asked, ever the annoyingly perceptive associate.

"I was enjoying the smell of the food, pup. I'm sure you can appreciate it as well considering you look like you have ants in your pants."

This made Mike suddenly sit still and sit his back ramrod straight as though he were a small boy invited to a big dinner with important people at the table, but he still zeroed in on Harvey, "That sounded like a sad sigh more than a contented sigh."

He shot Mike a puzzled look and asked, "Why would I be sad? I'm alive and I'm in the company of good – well, Donna's a good friend. I don't know what you are – " Mike blew out his breath in exasperation and rolled his eyes at Harvey "Hey, she has twelve years under her belt with me. And – "

"I don't know how she could stand it with the kind of egoism you ooze," Mike mumbled under his breath.

"And I'm about to eat what smells like some really good food. Does any of that sound like a cause for sadness?"

"No, but – "

"You misheard, Mike, that's all."

"Boys, dinner is on the table!"

Getting away from his incurably curious associate was the perfect motivator to will his limbs to move and, though he felt stiff, he was moving and into the kitchen before Mike could say anything else. She was placing the garlic bread on the table when she saw him stop and cock his head curiously; she frowned at him and said, "If you say anything negative about the quality of the food, you can just fend for yourself."

"I wasn't going to say anything of the sort," Harvey replied with an innocent smile. "I was just trying to recall the last time someone made me a full meal that wasn't from a restaurant."

"I made you breakfast this morning," Donna replied, as if it was so obvious and he snorted at her.

"You know what I mean. I think it was last Thanksgiving at my parents' house," he said as he took his seat.

Mike had come in and was still throwing Harvey suspicious glances as he also took his seat, but his entire demeanor changed as he took a seat and snatched up a fork. "Oh wow, Donna, it looks awesome!" He made a motion to spear one of the pieces of parmesan chicken, but then he caught the look Harvey gave him and he edged away from him as though he expected to either get a head slap or a wrist slap.

Donna saw the exchange and she rolled her eyes, putting a salad on the table that would make the last touches to the meal. "You don't have to wait for me, boys. I don't need you to be strictly formal here."

"But that would be rude," Harvey said. "Besides, if Mike doesn't learn proper manners here, he'll never learn them."

"I'm not _five_, Harvey, I know what proper manners are and I _do_ make use of them," Mike pouted at him, but he seemed to recognize a losing fight when he saw it. So he simply sighed and started helping himself to the salad.

Donna found it to be a surprisingly quiet dinner, even given that Harvey was hardly a babbling brook like Mike was, but she could tell that something had shifted in Harvey's mood and just like a good mentor-mentee relationship, Mike was subconsciously channeling it too. She and Harvey may be the closest friends possible, but she did find it incredible how Mike could turn into his boss' emotional megaphone at times. Harvey kept his head down and he ate quietly but with very little in the way of the appetite that she had seen earlier in the day. She made a mental note to address it when Mike left.

"So, Mike, did you actually do anything fun last night after closing that big deal on Friday? Surely you went out to party."

"Oh, yeah, I took, uh, Jenny out to a late dinner last night. I don't have much in the way of drinking buddies anymore, so it was just a quiet night with the girlfriend," he said. At this he glanced at Harvey out of the corner of his eye and said, "Not that it really matters, but I'm definitely not a virgin, _Harvey_."

"It's difficult to tell when you act _that_ awkward about it, Mike," Harvey replied. He could understand being uncomfortable around _Louis_ describing his sex life, but then that was Louis. Mike acted like a teenager who had yet to see a real set of boobs around anyone else and Harvey only ever inadvertently touched upon the subject when he occasionally mentioned a weekend foray. That was not often as he meticulously kept his personal and professional lives completely separate. Well, as separate as could when he often had outings with Donna.

"Okay, I may not be strict about manners here, but sex will definitely not be a regular topic of dinner. I really do _not_ want to hear about either of your exploits," she said, giving them both pointed looks and bringing another round of silence to the table.

Finally, Donna said, "Okay, Harvey, Mike and I only got a few text messages from you while you were stuck in your apartment building. What happened in the five hours or so you were trapped?"

"Nothing really. Learned far more about the inhabitants on my floor than I really cared to know," he replied and when he saw Mike giving him a strange look, he sighed. "Get your mind out of the gutter, pup, I'm saying I didn't want to know my neighbors at all!"

"Oh, okay."

"Anyone worth mentioning?"

"Maybe that doctor David Reeft. Said he was an old Vietnam Vet forced into the war by his parents. He was practically the only person with an ounce of sense on that floor. Marcus also had some sense, which I thought was pretty amazing for a stockbroker."

"Oh c'mon, Harvey. They just don't have hearts," Donna interjected.

"Alex was okay too. She had that whole cute college kid thing going on and," he grimaced and shuddered, "she almost beat me at pool!"

"Ha ha. You got your ass handed to you by a college girl?" Mike apparently couldn't resist needling him.

"That match was a farce. She knocked the eight ball in and the cue ball fell into a different pocket."

"Yup, that's technically a loss," Donna said.

Harvey nodded grimly. "I want a rematch but, yeah, she was good. We also played poker for two hours. I was up fifty by the end of it."

"I want to play you in poker. I bet I could see through your poker face," Donna said and she was smiling with barely controlled glee.

He glanced over at her and had difficulty keeping the barest of smiles from his face when he saw that gleam she always got when she challenged his abilities. Even when he lost to her it never actually felt like one. "Arrange some sort of poker party. I'd be happy to accept your challenge then. That doctor Reeft was a pretty good challenge too, although I beat him in pool. Sweet, sweet victory."

"Is that all that happened?" Mike asked, disappointment made the excitement slide from his face.

"I think you're glossing over," Donna said, staring at Harvey pointedly. "I distinctly recall you mentioning getting kicked in the groin by some woman."

Harvey scowled at Donna as Mike's face took on a look of shock and disgust. "It wasn't that big of a deal. This stupid woman went into hysterics when the power went out. I tried to restrain her and she punched me in the eye and got me in the groin. Marcus ended up having to restrain her."

"Oh," Mike said, his face lightening.

The older lawyer couldn't help but glare at Mike. Even after three months of working together, his associate seemed to keep the impression that he wasn't much better with women than Louis was. Yes, he may have kept up the impression that all lawyers were jackasses, but being jackasses and being chauvinistic pigs did _not_ go hand in hand. He was glad that Donna didn't immediately jump to the idea of sexual harassment.

"Good for you, Harvey, you probably saved that stupid woman's life," Donna said, taking a sip of her water.

He only grunted in response and then put his fork down. "Are we done here? I'll clean up." With that he picked up his plate and Donna's and headed over to the sink.

Mike seemed to sense that he had outstayed his welcome and he grimaced. "Oh, I just remembered that Jenny and I were supposed to go out for drinks tonight. See ya, Harvey. I hope you're all rested up for Monday. Oh, and feel free to call me when you go to your apartment tomorrow. I'll see you then!"

"Bye," Harvey replied, rather hollowly.

Donna followed Mike to the door and just before it closed she stuck her hand out to stop the door, "Mike, I know you have a high opinion of him, but I would watch your expressions a little better. Harvey's reputation may be that of an unfeeling jackass, but he is no less a gentleman because of it. He cares about his reputation and he would not want you thinking he's a sexist pig anymore than his clients."

"I know," Mike said with an ounce of exasperation. "I know he's not like Louis. I know he's always gracious it's just that…what do women kick men in the groin for ninety percent of the time? That's all. I guess I shouldn't play poker with him anytime soon."

"Yeah, you'd lose everything," Donna replied and patted him on the back. "Harvey should be back to normal by Monday. The last case and now the fire have thrown him off base. He won't hold it against you."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Donna. Try not to let Harvey boss you around too much," Mike said, the old cheerful twinkle back in his eye as he turned to leave.

"As if he could! Have a good night," Donna said. Her smile fell as the door close and she looked back at the kitchen to see that Harvey had completely cleared the table and had his back to her as she washed dishes. Now she had the unpleasant task of defusing Harvey whom she had already recognized had a serious mood swing in the time it took her to put on dinner. She honestly doubted Harvey was half as upset at Mike's presuppositions as much as he was mad at himself for letting it show how much it upset him.

She took a breath, exhaled quietly and came to stand next to her table with her arms crossed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Harvey muttered.

"Harvey, the puppy's gone. Mike's not going to hear about any of this so you can stop smoke-screening. You were upset before you even started eating, so what's you got your mood swinging like a woman on hormones?"

He had stopped washing her dishes and seemed to be burning a hole into her kitchen window with his eyes until finally he said, "I'm tired."

"Well then, by all means, _go__to__sleep!_ Getting a little extra sleep won't kill you."

He slammed his hands down on the sink, still refusing to look at her. "That's just it! I slept for eight hours today! Normally, even after a hard case and _two_ sleepless nights, I am fully rested enough the next day to go about my normal routine. But everything just feels wrong! I don't feel like doing shit. I have never felt so lazy in my life and it disgusts me."

"Harvey, turn around and look at me."

It took him a minute, but eventually he turned around so that he was leaning against the counter, but although he was looking at her his face was downturned and sulky.

She stepped up closer to him, hands on her hips, with the intent of making sure that he could look nowhere else but at her face. If there was one thing she loved about heels it was that it gave her the height she needed to look him directly in the eye, and that was particularly important at the office, but here she used her shorter stature to her advantage. "Harvey, if there is nothing else I know about you, I know for a fact that you are a creature of routine. I am your Executive Assistant because you need the best to make sure your day is on schedule. Even when we are _both_ off the clock, you still manage your time like a businessman. Even your supposed moments of spontaneity have a set timeframe. Your obsession to control the courtroom and all situations has led to this obsession of schedule."

Harvey's expression had lightened as he considered her words and she decided to take an extra step and put a hand to his cheek.

"That damn fire threw a giant wrench in your normal ritual and ever since then, your mind and your body has been struggling to right itself and get back on track. I promise that, if you do not feel better by tomorrow morning, when you've slept through the night, you _will_ feel better when you go to work on Monday," Donna said and she started smiling when she saw Harvey fighting to keep a smile off of his own face. "Now, do me a favor and _relax!_ Enjoy your lazy Sunday, Harvey. I think you earned it after that nightmare of a case the last two weeks."

Finally he said, "But it was going to be such _good_ victory sex!"

"If you feel that strongly about it, I'd be more than willing to go bar hopping with you so that you can find _someone_ to take you home. I don't think it'd be that hard," Donna said with a victorious smirk. It was only then she realized how close they were standing and she suddenly wondered, _When__did__he__stop__leaning__on__the__counter?_ She opened her mouth to say something but before she could make a sound he had swept her up into a hug so tight she could feel the air being squeezed out of her lungs.

After a moment he loosened up his grip but he kept a strong hold of her and she heard him say, "Honestly, what _would_ I do without you?"

"You would be lonely and bitter and not half as rich as you are now. So, mostly the same," she said into his shoulder and he laughed.

He was just daring enough to plant a kiss on her forehead before he started walking past her back toward the living room. "All right, I'm ready to watch Ripley kick some ass and take some names. I always loved that bitch fight between her and the alien queen," he said.

She stayed there a moment, her back to him and whispered, "Damn it, Harvey, you never make being around you easy."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for your reviews and alerts! Feedback is most appreciated. =)<strong>


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Thank you all for your responses! I enjoy hearing what you think and your own thoughts on how the characters are portrayed. Thank you so much for the reviews, the alerts, and the faves. =)

****I do not own Suits.**  
><strong>

**Chapter 7**

Harvey's eyes flew open and his body was tense as he oriented himself to the real world, taking note that the room was still very dark and it must be late. He glanced over at the woman next to him and released a quiet sigh of relief when she did not stir, and then he propped himself up on his elbow to try to see the alarm clock numbers burning into the dark with a vibrant green: 2:15. He slowly lowered himself back to the bed and then breathed slowly.

He had no recollection of the nightmare that had apparently awoken him, but he did not feel either particularly alarmed, drowsy, or grumpy. Even in the dead of night, he felt focused, sharp, and pensive, as was normal. It sounded like Donna had been right, again, about his recovery from his ordeal. It would take a little bit more sleep than he was used to having, but eventually his body would fall back into his regular routine and he could go about his life. These midnight awakenings were, if not entirely regular, remnants of his schedule from before the fire and so he simply took it as a sign that things were returning to normal.

It was not often when he awoke in the middle of the night that he would find himself still in bed with a woman and it was due to a lack of this that an overwhelming feeling of loneliness would steal over him and it wouldn't be, not for the first, that he really wished he had a significant other. This time, though, as he stared at the woman who's back was incidentally toward him, he was relieved not to be alone but wary; he risked running into dangerous territory, particularly when the subject of many of his midnight musings was lying right next to him: Donna.

They had bickered over who would get the bed, but not quite in the traditional way.

++**Suits**++

"Harvey, I was being facetious when I implied you would be on the couch. You _need_ a mattress – don't try to tell me that your shoulder isn't sore."

He scowled at her and then he said, "I'm not going to deny that my shoulder aches" – she huffed aloud at this and he inwardly cursed her for knowing him well enough to know that his shoulder was stiffer than normal – "but I am a guest at your house. The guest does not automatically displace the host –ess. You should_ not_ be sleeping on the couch. It's not any better for your back than it is mine!"

They were both glaring at each other neither one of them willing to budge on their stance when Harvey saw Donna's face soften ever so slightly. He tried to fight back a triumphant smirk when she gave him a contemplative look and said, "If you insist that I stay in my own bed, then we can always compromise."

That had wiped the hints of any smile off his face and he stared warily at her. "What? Wha-how do you mean we compromise?"

"Oh, c'mon, Harvey, I know you're smart enough to get my meaning. I know you're not used to sleeping in the same bed as a girl who has _clothes_ but I trust that you won't get sticky fingers in the middle of the night." But he looked more alarmed than pleased at her proposition.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Well, I will warn you that if there is any funny business, I will remove your hands and promptly kick you out on your ass," she replied.

Between sleeping next to Donna and dealing with another round of fire at his apartment, he honestly felt he'd rather contend with the fire again.

++**Suits**++

It was in these midnight musings that he would briefly regret ever becoming a lawyer, let alone the best closer in the city with millions of dollars for every penny that he had when he was broke and floundering. He certainly enjoyed the lavish lifestyle of the rich with occasional sojourns back to middle class, via either cheaper bars or his own personal Star Trek marathons, and his status as one of the most eligible bachelors in the city had kept a steady stream of beautiful and rich women into his bed. But he could only trust his clients and the woman he slept with about as far as he could throw them. Jessica, Donna, and Mike were the extent of his circle of trust and he didn't even trust Mike half as much as he trusted his two favorite women.

He owed Jessica his entire life. If it were not for her, he might still be scraping the bottom of the economic barrel and he could not express in words how grateful he was that she did not constantly hold such leverage over his head. There were times, he would admit to himself, where he would wonder when the last shoe would drop and she would finally dig that out to prod him into doing what she wanted. She knew perfectly well that he was a man who honored his debts, and while he had paid her back monetarily, he was not sure he could pay back her loyalty.

She was his mentor and he trusted her without question. Cameron Dennis had been his mentor and he had _also_ trusted him without question. Later the questions bubbled up, but never was there a question of his loyalty and he had found out the hard way how that had come close to completely destroying his life. After someone he had once trusted attempted to throw him away without a second thought, he now could not keep from contemplating if either Jessica or Mike would do that to him.

He did not have to fear this with Donna. Even after she had gone behind his back with stolen evidence – she could have told him about that. He wouldn't have been half as upset if he hadn't been blindsided – he had no consideration of actually firing her. That had not been the issue at all. Not only did it seem as if she hadn't trusted him with such sensitive information, but she had risked her own career and reputation when she stuck her neck out for him. To fight his battle instead. He could not accept her to risk that on his behalf.

He owed her an apology. The first one had been an office apology, appropriate between employer and employee; professional and sufficient for Jessica and their image in the office as an unstoppable team. Now, he owed her a private apology, the one she deserved to hear and it was long overdue. This was the first time they had seen each other out of the office, since the Clifford Danner case. He had been so caught up in the fallout afterward and all of the cases he neglected for Clifford that this weekend was the first opportunity to relax. He made a mental note to say something to her first thing in the morning.

And, while he was at it, he vowed never to pull rank on her again. If he couldn't win any of their serious disputes on even footing then quite frankly, he admitted to himself, he didn't deserve to win at all. Pulling rank was a Louis tactic and even just thinking the name left a horrible aftertaste in his mouth and he grimaced. He had reamed Louis about cheating so it was about damned time he followed his own principle.

His eyes flicked over to hear gain as he listened to her soft breathing, having not moved a single muscle. _Just think what your life would be like without her, _Jessica had said to him.

Miserable.

He had thought about it before and he was grateful to her for having reminded him of it. Without a doubt, any other assistant would get on his nerves and he would send them all running in fear eventually. They would be subservient, naïve, and vulnerable to manipulation, leaving him in a weak position to other partners and lawyers, most particularly Louis. Donna not only put up with his shit, but gave it right back. She could never be cowed or outwitted by the partners. She was half the reason he was considered the best closer in the city.

Without her, his entire life would start coming apart at the seams. Mike might help keep him afloat but it would eventually fall down like a house of cards.

But there was always the possibility that no matter what, she would leave him. Years ago, in their numerous evening conversation that would involve his private liquor store in his office, he had asked her if she wanted kids.

Her response had been straightforward and expected, "Yeah, some day. Probably just one though."

That had been years ago and her window was closing. In their idle chat he would occasionally ask her if she was seeing anyone and more often than not, it was a no. Sometimes she would say 'yes' but it would lack enthusiasm. The one time she had been excited – which had made his blood run cold – it had ended rather abruptly when she discovered the man was married. Donna had been so livid, Harvey almost tracked him down using his PI and kicked his ass, but she had expressly looked at him with a warning that said, "I'll deal with it" and he had let it go. He'd only had the guy followed for a week.

However, there was always the possibility that she would fine _the one_. The bounds of their relationship would inevitably alter, but it might not end. He at least had convinced himself that Donna wouldn't want it to end. But how long would any husband put up with his wife bringing his boss coffee? Being called in late at night to file paperwork, even as rare as that was? Would he be unable to see Harvey as anything but competition? Harvey knew perfectly well that office gossip already had them sleeping together, which was something not even Donna's rules or fearsome presence could ever seem to stifle. That kind of talk would eventually reach a husband's ears. In a choice between her boss and husband, Harvey was quite sure who'd be on the losing side of that decision.

And why shouldn't he be? He couldn't provide her with kids or a husband. They could only be friends because she thought they could never work as a couple and, furthermore, she did not want to instill the idea that it was the result of an intimate relationship that she was with him now. She had her rules for a reason and in their twelve years together, they had _never_ broken them. He almost broke one tonight. The hug earlier was one of the many gestures he had used to substitute for a kiss. She deserved a hell of a lot more for putting up with him and he often expressed this gratitude with her favorite chocolate, flowers, and even jewelry, but he never felt like he could ever fully compensate her for her trouble.

He had lied to Mike. Hell, everyone whoever heard him say, "I only care about one thing: Me." What was worse was that everyone in the office building knew, even if they hadn't fully connected the dots. No one ever messed with Donna not just because she was a force to be reckoned with, but because they would incur the wrath of Harvey Specter.

Harvey felt Donna shift next to him and he glanced over in alarm, half-wondering if she had somehow been gleaning his thoughts from the ceiling he had been glaring into, but she never looked at him. She shivered and then burrowed into her covers. He frowned at her and it was only that he noticed the air of the apartment had a distinct wintry air.

He cautiously reached out with one hand – Donna's earlier threats at the forefront of his mind – and touched her arm under the sheets. It was cold. He deliberated on his next course of action but then he sighed.

She had done so much for him, it was high time he sacrificed something for her. He just hoped she'd leave him his right hand to sign contracts and do paperwork. He rolled over to her and, praying against hope she would not awaken, he carefully slid an arm underneath her and one over to rest on her abdomen, so now that he was spooned up against her.

Eventually he relaxed and fell back asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapters!<strong>

**This chapter might have been a little OOC for Harvey, but I could see him picking over his thoughts and analyzing them as apart of that obsessive need to be in control. I also imagine he has done a lot of thinking on his relationship with Donna**.


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Hi, everyone! I am still writing for this fic, I just happened to get _super_ busy this week. O.O Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts! They really brighten my very dull life. =)**

**I do not own Suits.  
><strong>

**Chapter 8**

Donna enjoyed a luxuriously slow return to the waking world. It felt as though each of her senses were coming on-line on one right after the other. The first thing she noticed was the comfortable warmth she felt she was floating on as though an electric blanket had been thrown on her in the middle of the night. It was especially refreshing after waking buried under the sheets from the chill that was, much to her dismay, frequenting the mornings. She hummed at the pleasant sensation.

Her sense of touch came back next and she noticed a heavy weight on her waist. She could now also sense that the heat was generation from her back. She instinctively snuggled closer to the source and smiled.

She realized that it was still fairly dark out as she just barely cracked open her eyes and noticed the pale light through the window. Curse her internal alarm for keeping her work week schedule on the weekends. But then they had gone to bed fairly early last night…

Her brain finally woke up and her eyes snapped open. She was sharing her bed with Harvey. She let her eyes slide downward and found both of his arms wrapped around her like she was a stuffed animal. His face had to be behind her ear because she could hear him exhaling slowly and softly. It was his body that was generating the warmth and she blinked in surprise when the word to describe this clicked in her mind: he was spooning her.

She was just about ready to grab his arm and move it when she felt him shift and he breathed in what could only be a quiet yawn. He was awake. He suddenly but cautiously began to slip his arms from around her until her fingers snapped around his wrist like a trap.

"Caught you," she said in a whisper.

"Red-handed," he mumbled sleepily as though he were only half awake. Now that he knew she was awake, she felt him relax against her back and his arm go limp in her hand.

"Now, I never expected the Great Harvey Specter to be a snuggler," she said in a low voice as though he were in trouble, but she was smiling.

"You were cold," he replied. "Instead of letting you wake up in the night and lose sleep, I thought I'd help. I've encountered a grumpy Donna before and she's far less attractive and enjoyable."

"Jerk," she replied and elbowed him. She was surprised at the recoil.

"Whoa! Don't elbow my bladder this time of the morning," he said, with the most life so far.

"Then go pee!"

"But it's so warm and comfortable here," he mumbled. "All right, I'm going."

This time she aimed a little higher into his ribs.

She almost instantly regretted making him leave as he slid his arms out from around her and sat on his side of the bed. He didn't seem to notice her shiver. She watched him try to rub his eyes to wakefulness and then he shuffled over to her bathroom and, thankfully, remembered to shut the door.

She closed her eyes, turned over and attempted to doze off even as she could hear the sounds in her bathroom. After what seemed like an age, he came out – after washing his hands, thank God – and pulled the covers up to climb back into bed. Donna immediately turned, wrapped her eyes around him, and curled as close as she could.

"What is this? I'm not your stuffed animal."

"You treated me like I was one. And you broke the rules first."

"I was doing a good deed. You slept peacefully because of me."

"So you did," she conceded. "So consider this tit for tat."

She felt him tense like a drawn rubber band. It took her a moment to find the cause of his reaction and then she ran the last thing she said and her eyes widened. She could just imagine what was going through his mind but anything he could possibly say would toe the line or play with it. Would he dare? He had said many a sexy, flirtatious, and even borderline lecherous things to her but he always drew the line before he could realistically be called a sexist pig. They were alone now so would he?

He would.

"But I never got to touch any tits!"

She gave him one solid slap on the chest, trying desperately to hide the smile threatening to break over her face. "You pig!"

Harvey turned toward her and she was startled momentarily surprised when she realized their mouths were only inches apart. He was frowning at her, but one glance at his eyes and she could see that twinkle when he was amused. "I'm sorry, but you left that wide open! How could I resist?"

Her smile was irrepressible, but she sighed and managed to shake her head as if in disappointment. "There are few who could. You better not say things like that at work."

He huffed at her. "I know better than that."

"Thought I'd offer a friendly warning," she replied.

The conversation faded away with the night sky and they lie in her bed for what felt like an hour or more. Her eyes were cracked open just a hair as she stared at the wall of her room, feeling Harvey's breaths easing in and out slower and slower as he fell back asleep. In many ways it reminded her of the quiet moments they _used_ have in the office before he had hired Mike and she decided it would not be a sin to revel in it for even a moment. The kid was a little too chatty and bubbly for the both of them, but it had still managed to fit into their team dynamic. God help them both if they had wound up with another Harvey.

Harvey suddenly sat bolt upright and she jumped.

"What's wrong?"

He opened and closed his mouth for several seconds, "Umm…well…err…I mean."

"Nightmare?"

"No." He took several deep breaths, closing his eyes, and then he set his mouth in a neutral line and turn to gaze at her with an expression she could not quite follow. Humble, apologetic, and, quite obviously inarticulate; all three things that Harvey _never_ was. So where had this come from? "Donna," he bit his lip and looked straight into her eyes again and said, "I am sorry."

She stiffened and stared at him with narrowed eyes. She could count on one hand the number of times he had literally said "I'm sorry." When it came to something as powerful and delicate as their friendship, he would often clam up verbally and she figured it was a fear of saying the absolute wrong thing. She searched his eyes for the answer to her question before she asked it, "For what?"

"Cameron Dennis," he said, wincing as though the name were painful to say.

She winced with him, but let out a breath of relief. "You mean the evidence?"

"Yes," he replied and he kept his eye contact with her. "I should never have threatened to fire you. I didn't mean it! I was just upset and…"

"Harvey, shut up," she was almost surprised when he snapped his mouth shut obediently and was staring at her both warily and expectantly. "You do not wear guilty very well, so stop it."

He sighed and she could see a sliver of annoyance on his face. "I'm trying to be serious here. I was wrong and I am sorry. I swear that I will never pull rank on you again."

"Harvey!" He stopped talking again but there was clear exasperation on his face. "You have _nothing_ to apologize for."

She half-wished she had a camera right there to capture that look of utter disbelief because she had never seen such a look on his face ever. He was _always_ two steps ahead of his opponents and could see the clear progression of their thought process, but she had completely thrown him off guard.

"You must be joking," he said to her. "I did not treat you well, not like a friend."

"Harvey, I've thought on this quite a bit since that little lecture you gave me in your office and I realized that I didn't treat you like a friend either."

"What? You put your career at risk for me. It was stupid and you should _never_ have done it," he said but she was happy to see some of the old fire in his eyes that she remembered, "but you did it _because_ you're my friend."

"I should have told you about the evidence," she replied. "I knew you'd be upset when you discovered its existence but you should have known. I was a bad friend, because I did not trust you enough to share information that would undoubtedly affect you too. And _furthermore_," she hurried on when he opened his mouth to speak, "you were hurting from what Cameron almost did to you. I know you. You are loyal to your superiors and your friends even when they may not have your best interests at heart, not unlike how Mike was friends with that idiot Trevor." He shuddered and grimaced at her comparison, but she knew he understood the precise parallels she was drawing.

"I should have told you because you were undoubtedly raw from Cameron's betrayal. You were probably doing a double take on more than just our relationship, but the ones you hold with Mike and Jessica," she said. He huffed again, but she could see the quirk of his lips in a smile. Yes, she had him pegged. "I never should have gone behind your back with the evidence and, in hindsight, I can easily understand your anger after you found out."

There was a moment of silence as he hung his head while he absorbed her words but, very quietly, he said, "I never doubted you. I was…mostly upset at the thought that you risked your career for me. You should look after yourself. I never would have forgiven myself if you got dragged down with me." He nudged her head affectionately with his and she took the opportunity to throw an arm around his shoulder.

"You seem to be under the crazy assumption that I would _have_ a career if you were disbarred. Do you honestly think I could just turn around and work for another lawyer like that?" She asked, snapping her fingers in emphasis and he chuckled.

"Not all lawyers are as bad as Louis," he replied. "Jessica probably would have made a position for you on her staff."

"But it wouldn't be the same. You've spoiled me."

She felt his smile grow wider and he said, "I have?"

"By being such a great boss. Get your mind out of the gutter!"

She finally started to untangle herself from him to climb out of bed and start getting ready for the day. Just as she was about to enter the bathroom he spoke again. "I still don't think you needed to apologize."

"Well, back at ya, Harvey," she replied.

He gave her a half smile before he lay back down on her bed again.

Donna smirked to herself as she turned back around and closed the bathroom door. Their friendship felt like it was back on track and she was surprised at how damaged she only just realized it was before they'd hashed it all out. Now she had a feeling that there had been invisible fractures that neither one of them had seen that may have either spider webbed into a more serious break or would have healed much more slowly. Now she felt like they had settled the matters and everything was casted to grow strong once again, if not stronger.

That had not been the first time that she had been the unintentional target of venting that Harvey had kept bottled up for propriety's sake and this often happened once the building had emptied and they were alone drinking in his office. This was the first time, though, that she had intentionally earned his ire and she had decided afterward that she would try damned hard not to do that again. It was as she had said, he had been hurt at her lack of trust in him. Usually his anger was the result of an irascible client but he always apologized to her through gestures rather than words; dinner out, jewelry, flowers, and even candy. He always seemed to know the perfect appeasement gift and she decided that even as much as his presence seemed to overshadow hers, he still knew her just as well as she knew him.

He was a great lawyer, intelligent and articulate in matters that very often did not require more than a minimal investment. Winning, he had said, was all he cared about. However, once his job required more than just a minimal investment of his emotions, it became _that_ much harder to win. He kept a tight control of his emotions because they would often run away from him before his intelligence could catch up. His very loud lecture of Louis in his office, the time when he almost assaulted one of the murders in the Danner case, and, the most important one, when he threatened to fire her over the stolen evidence – were all indicative of what happened when he lost his famed control. All of those events were a result from when it all became emotionally charged.

Harvey had been trying to tell Mike this from the beginning. You cannot give your heart and soul to every client because that was the fastest way to lose rationality. You can't win if you care so much that your mind was no longer open to the thousands of other versatile paths to winning. Donna honestly wondered if Mike would eventually understand this lesson before Harvey had to literally spell it out for him.

Once she freshened up, she pulled on some wool socks and a fleece pullover from her bedside table and looked over at Harvey who had buried himself in her bed covers. "You need to get up. We need to drop by your apartment today, remember? I would like to do that at a reasonable hour."

"We need to be there before noon?" He asked, cracking one eye open at her and she gave him a look of mixed exasperation and amusement.

"I like getting everything done early in the day. This is also to encourage you to get back into your routine as swiftly as possible. Remember?"

"On chilly days, I rarely get up before noon. This is perfectly routine," he replied.

"What if I told you I was making homemade glazed donuts?"

Donna watched in amusement as he immediately opened his eyes and sat up, cocking his head in curiosity.

"You can bake too?"

She scowled at him. "I can see why all the women fall all over themselves for you. Got anything better than snappy retorts?"

"I could ask the same of you," he said with a half smirk and he reached over to his side of the bed to snatch up his backpack, where he pulled out a pullover of his own.

"Hmmph," she said and turned to stalk her way out of the room.

Just half an hour later, both Harvey and Donna were sitting back at her table munching on a large plate of the homemade donuts and though she hadn't been counting precisely, she thought he might be on donut number six as he looked through the classifieds in the newspaper.

"Damn, Harvey, I thought you were a health nut – never eating more than you should, always being in perfect shape. I'm starting to get a different picture of you."

He rolled his eyes at her, but then he nodded. "Yeah, I may have to run myself to death to get these calories off," he replied sarcastically. "You only thought I was a health nut because I go to the gym three nights a week."

"Wait, you only go three nights a week?"

"That's right."

"How many miles do you run?"

"Three miles at a time and then I do some lifting afterward," he replied as he helped himself to yet _another_ donut. When he happened to glance at her face, he saw what looked like thunderheads in her eyes and he couldn't keep from snickering.

"I _hate_ you! I run three miles every weekday! How the hell do you stay so thin, you bastard?"

"Maybe it's genetics? You should have seen me in high school."

"I'm sure you were a regular garbage disposal."

"We went through _two_ gallons of milk in three days."

"That's a load of crap. How do you stay so thin because I see the gunk you call food that you eat at the office," she said, thinking back to the McDonalds he had mentioned earlier. Not to mention those hotdogs outside the building. How _did_ he stay so thin?

He gave her a flat stare. "You want to know how I stay so thin? I live like a damn college student! I come home from work, usually pretty tired, and since there's only one of me the only thing I feel like cooking are grilled sandwiches. Guess when sandwiches got boring? About ten years ago."

Donna laughed over her Stephen King novel she was reading. "Sounds like you need a woman to cook you a proper meal," she said to him with an amused smile.

He sat up with a mischievous smile. "Is that an offer?"

"Sure, but you have to cook _me_ dinner some time. And it better not be those dreaded sandwiches."

"Done."

They shook on it to make it a proper contract – to which Donna eyed him suspiciously; she knew what had happened between Mike and Kyle – and then he returned to the classifieds, frowning over them. "I think landlords must believe that rich people don't read newspapers. I can't find anything."

"That's because rich people can afford realtors," she replied and to which he groaned.

"I hate realtors. They get on my nerves!"

"That's life, Harvey, deal with it."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll call my contact tomorrow. She was at least tolerable."

"You going to call Mike to move out some of your stuff?"

"Probably. He did offer and I may apologize for going menopausal on him," Harvey said but she saw him roll his eyes. "I'm not sure I'm _that_ sorry."

"Oh yes, nothing to apologize for. He'll only be carrying some of your most expensive suits."

"He knows his ass is grass if _any_thing happens to those suits. I better call him so that he can meet us…"

She glanced up from her reading as his voice trailed off and she saw him staring off into space as though a thought had just struck him. Suddenly he groaned and grimaced as he rubbed his eyes.

"What is it? A sudden onset migraine?" She was pretty sure those didn't exist.

"Might be worse than that. I just realized the building has no power."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "So…?"

"So there's no elevator! Which means we have to climb twenty flights of stairs."

Donna stared at him and then she said, "Maybe I'll be able to skip going to the gym tomorrow after all."

"That settles it, I'm definitely calling Mike. That way we should only have to make one trip," he said and he went to snatch his phone up off the table. "Yeah, Mike, it's me. Care to still help move some essentials out of my apartment? We'll bring donuts."

* * *

><p><strong>I hope this isn't too OOC for either of them, but if you're going to have a friendship as strong as theirs, you gotta have your moments of brutal honesty. <strong>

**I would like to apologize for the lack of substance to this chapter. It was originally supposed to include the apartment, but by the time I'd get done the chapter would probably be 20 pages. Not wholly bad, but I figured you had waited long enough to hear from me, so here you are. Only two chapters left in the story!**

**Thank you for the reviews and the alerts!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Well, this chapter ended up being 19 pages. I hope you enjoy the long chapter. =) Thank you, Bloo98, for the review. I enjoy reading your feedback.  
><strong>

**Chapter 9**

Harvey stood in front of his apartment, tapping his foot in impatience, sighing every once in a while and glancing at his watch. "I promise the kid breakfast and he _still_ can't show up on time. If he appears in anything less than his best, I'm going to kill him," he growled as he glanced down at the Tupperware container Donna was holding.

"Was he even awake when you called?" Donna asked, outwardly amused at Mike's habitual lateness. "I would give him an award if he looks better prepped than you." She glanced pointedly at his hair. Although he had not put any gel in his hair, it retained its shape but it remained spiky in the back.

"No, he wasn't, but I gave him two hours to get ready," Harvey replied, looking at her as though he was daring her to say that was unreasonable.

"No, no, he should be here. If you can get ready in ten minutes, he ought to."

Harvey rolled his eyes at her. "I think he does that every day."

"And what do you take?" She shot back.

"Half an hour. Forty minutes if I'm particularly dedicated."

Her eyes widened in mock surprise. "Only thirty minutes? I thought you'd take an hour at the minimum! So, when do you wake up in the morning?" Her eyes went down to search the sidewalk as if he had a puzzled frown and he was certain she was trying to figure out if she'd already asked the question.

He smirked proudly at her. "Five-thirty!"

"Why?" She said with a disgusted look on her face. "Even I don't get up that early. Well, not often. You need to be at work by 8 for God's sake!"

"It's a habit I developed in college. I get up two hours early so that I can eat breakfast and get my brain working. It's why I'm so sharp in the morning."

"And yet you always forget your coffee…"

"You only think I do." A yellow flash caught his attention and he fixed his best glower as the cab pulled up to the curb, only to have it land on the girl Alex as she climbed out, followed by another woman who was almost a foot taller than her.

"Whoa. Who stole your breakfast?" She asked, recoiling even a little from the glare.

His face relaxed only slightly. "Oh, it's you."

"Nice to see you too. I hope your weekend's seen some improvement from Friday," she said. Her smile slowly turned smug as she glanced over at Donna.

"Don't even go there. Alex, this is Donna, my _secretary_," he replied. "Donna, this is Alex. One of those annoying neighbors I was telling you about."

Alex wrinkled her nose at him. "You're doing wonders to change my opinion of lawyers. Nice to meet you. You're far too dedicated to be a mere secretary," Alex said to her with a nice smile and then she glanced at Harvey with a pointed stare. "If I were a secretary, I'm not sure I'd even drive out to pick my boss up in the pouring rain."

"What can I say? His cash bonuses are pretty generous," Donna replied, smiling in satisfaction when she heard Harvey snort.

"Yes, I think that might change my mind too. Oh, Donna, Harvey, this is my friend, Alex. We've known each other since college," Alex said, grinning at the change in their expressions.

"How unfortunate," Harvey said. Though he shook her hand, he was getting bored with the conversation. All he wanted to do was to get in, get out, and possibly lie around more at Donna's. Maybe if this went quickly and easily, he'd be in a good enough mood to call Karen Scott, the realtor.

Finally, another yellow taxi pulled up and a harried Mike fumbled out of the door once he kicked it open, looking rumpled in a wrinkled navy shirt and jeans. His hair was so mussed, Harvey suspected he hadn't even combed it.

"Fifteen minutes," Harvey said, as he took the Tupperware container from Donna and held it out to Mike. Just as Mike reached for it, he held it back and asked, "Are you this late for everybody or should I be flattered?" He relinquished the box and Mike pulled the lid off and helped himself to the donuts.

"I'm sorry, Harvey. I accidentally fell back asleep after you called."

Harvey huffed. "It's always something, pup. Now hurry up. I wanted to be out of here by noon, but I don't think that will happen."

The two Alexs disappeared while Harvey was greeting Mike and now only Donna stood at the door of the entrance hall. "Hi, Mike. Enjoying those donuts?" She asked, smiling knowingly as they walked through the entrance hall.

"Mrmph-huh. They're delicious. Where'd you get them?"

"I made them." She was practically strutting as she said it.

Mike froze before he started eating another one and then he actually fell to his hands and knees and bowed at her feet.

"You are a goddess. Has anyone told you that recently?"

"Hmm…I'd say about three hours ago," she said, glancing over at Harvey.

"I confess nothing," Harvey replied. He made a noise of disgust, though, as he stared at Mike on the floor and then he grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him up. "Get up before you embarrass me."

The associate ignored Harvey and stared at Donna earnestly. "I will shower you in gifts of flowers everyday if you give me your recipe," Mike said and he had his hands clasped in front of as though he were begging her.

"I can't do that. Family secret, you know. However, if you gift me one flower a week, I will make them once a month and bring them into work."

"Well, does that include Harvey?"

"Of course it does."

"Hey," Harvey said, stepping up to her and looking straight into her eyes. Damn, it was difficult to fluster her but then that's why he hired her. "I've already gifted you enough to earn a lifetime of glazed donuts."

"Oooh, that is true," Donna replied, and then she stared up at the ceiling and put a finger to her mouth as if to think it over. Then she said, "How about flowers once a month."

Harvey smirked. "You drive a hard bargain."

"Done," Mike said and then he turned to Harvey, suddenly bright-eyed and excited. "Free glazed donuts! Homemade too! Oh, that's going to rock."

"Great, now can we stop fooling around down here? I have things to do," Harvey said and immediately pushed the door open to the stairs.

"Wait? Didn't you say you lived on the 20th floor? Why aren't we taking the elevator?" Mike asked, at the bottom of the stairs as Harvey reached the first landing.

"The power's out, genius," Harvey shot down to him from the first floor. Donna had given Mike a gentle push as she walked past and hurried up the stairs to catch up with Harvey. The older lawyer glanced down from the third landing to see that Mike was still staring upward in horror, as if Freddy Krueger himself were lurking up upstairs somewhere. "The twentieth floor isn't getting any closer if you continue to stay down there."

"Oh crap, you know, I think I still have some paperwork to do at the office. I'll catch up with you tomorrow," Mike called from below.

"If you leave right now, I will not only feed you to Louis, but Jessica as well. How would you like her scrutinizing your work? Now hurry the hell up," Harvey called to him and he sighed simultaneously with Mike.

"I – I was only joking, Harvey. Can't you take a joke?"

"You're about as good at making jokes as Harvey is."

"Hey, don't be mean," Harvey muttered quietly to her and her giggle echoed through the stairwell.

Slowly they trudged up the stairs and after what felt like ages, Harvey said to them, "Be careful what you touch. I don't care how well they cleaned this part, don't touch _any_thing. Not even the handrails." He was a little surprised to see that the stairwell was completely white again and the handrails had been replaced since Saturday, but the charred remains of the door still hung on its hinges on floor five to indicate there was a fire at all. Donna glanced back at it with an impressed look and then she quirked her mouth as if to say, _I__'__m__glad__you__weren__'__t__on__the__5__th__floor._

He stopped to wait a step for her and then grabbed her hand and squeezed it in comfort before they continued climbing the stairs. "I'm here now and that's all that matters."

"I hope you don't have anymore brushes with death, Harvey, because as much as we say 'oh, well, you were fifteen floors above the danger' you could have died just as well as the people here," Donna whispered back, now looking askance at the twisted remains of the door on floor six.

"C'mon, Donna, I didn't expect you to get hung up on this type of stuff. There's really no sense in stewing about it," he replied, keeping his voice low so the pup wouldn't be able to hear the echo of their conversation. It might set him off on another caring attack.

She drew her mouth into a line and said, "I'm only human, Harvey."

From down below they heard Mike say, "Whoa…was this where the fire was then?"

"Yes. Quite something, isn't it?"

"Yeah…." Mike trailed off and from above Harvey looked down to see him stopped momentarily looking at the door, and then he shuddered and continued up the stairs at a quickened pace. Clearly they were far more disturbed by the remnants of the fire and he had actually been stuck in the building. He supposed that it was all a matter of perspective. They weren't here, stuck in the building with him, counting down the incredibly boring and mostly unexciting hours it took for rescue to reach them; they could only speculate afar. But seeing the damage had a profound psychological effect and it all just seemed to press one thought into both of their minds: _Harvey__could__have__died._

He shook his head at the thought. _I__could__die__any__hour__of__the__day__from__a__freak__accident._A few years ago, Harvey had actually been shoved out into oncoming traffic by an angry client. It was only because of his quick reflexes he had just managed to avoid getting run over by a taxi; it had just grazed his hip and made him limp slightly for a week. He actually remembered that occasion fondly as it had switched Donna's maternal instincts to overdrive and she had showered him in attention and homemade food, much like this weekend.

There had been another time even just a year ago when he narrowly escaped t-boning a truck that had pulled out into traffic without looking his way. There were at least two other incidents Harvey could remember when he had had his lights punched out by, again, other angry clients who weren't satisfied with the deals he made them. A client from the opposing counsel had come after him with a baseball bat six years ago, but he had his _own_ baseball bat to counter that offense. Such instances of assault were very rare in the twelve odd years he had been in the business and he didn't think Donna had worried for a single minute over _if_ he had died. Or at least she did not express the thought aloud to him.

He hadn't even given a thought to the prospect of dying anytime soon. It was _never_ going to happen while he was vigilant and it was not often that his attention drifted at any point.

After several more minutes and several more flights of stairs, Harvey and Donna both heard an echoing moan come from below and then Mike said, "Are we there yet? My legs are killing me!"

"You ride a bike to work every day," Harvey shot down at him. He was personally surprised at how well his own legs were holding up since he only ran three nights a week.

"I don't think that kind of conditioning is enough to prepare for a hike up a stairwell. I mean, we probably could have walked three miles in the time it takes us to reach your floor."

"Well, then, pick up the pace. Then you'll reach the top in the time it takes to walk two."

"You're only wasting more energy the more you talk," Donna said to both of them and neither one of them missed the tinge of exasperation in her voice.

"He's the one whining, not me."

"Just shut up, Harvey."

After another five minutes passed, Harvey called out loudly, "17th floor! Only three more to go."

His declaration was only met with a groan from Mike.

Just as they were about to reach the eighteenth floor landing, they started to hear the echo of excited voices coming to them from above.

"All right, now let's go do something fun! I can't waste my whole day worrying about that idiot's fish."

"Whatever you say. As long as you're okay with it, I'm cool. So are we going back to your place?"

"Well, it's up to you. But I have Little Big Planet 2. We can see how hard you fail at that one like you did the first one."

There was a burst of laughter and the other voice said, "That was just the one time with those bombs!"

"What are you talking about? That was every level. I was the only reason we saw the end."

The two Alexs suddenly appeared on the landing on the stairway above, each with smiles big enough to spilt their faces. When the Alex Harvey met glanced at them, her grin seemed to grow and she replied, "Oh look, it's the lawyer. Hiya, Harvey. You look like you're having fun. Care to replay that game of pool? We could break into David's apartment. I'm sure he won't mind."

Harvey scowled at the memory of that particular game, but he sighed and shook his head. "I wish, but I really had no intentions of staying here long. I have other arrangements to make."

"Understandable. Alex and I were just discussing our plans for the evening. Pizza and Little Big Planet. How could you go wrong?"

"By playing little kids games?"

"That's not a kid's game! You're just one of those stuffy adults that call video games 'new-fangled equipment.'"

"And you're a kid wrapped up in all the pretty pictures and weak gameplay. Nintendo was the shit."

"Oh God, he's a Nintendo fan."

"Yeah, hmmm," the other Alex said with a grimace.

"I like the Wii," Donna said, sticking her chin up from behind Harvey at Alex.

The younger woman grinned. "Oh, it has its uses, but as a hardcore gaming machine it fails. Utterly. I need something with a far more extensive library. By the way, I may call you up for legal advice," Alex said, hesitated a moment and said, "as long as it's not too expensive."

Harvey glanced around them at the plush carpet of this floor and a now ruined painting hanging on a stairwell wall and he asked, "Don't you live here?"

Alex snorted. "Do you have any idea what video game designers make? You probably make more in a week than I make in a year. I'm not executive yet. No, my boyfriend's a stockbroker and I am babysitting his very expensive tropical fish while he is at a 'conference,'" she said, making the quotation marks.

"Another stockbroker," Harvey muttered. By this time, Mike had finally caught up with and waited patiently and, for once, quietly behind Donna. "He take a vacation without you?"

"Oh, he's a cheating bastard. There is no such 'financial conference' going on in Dallas right now. No, that's not for another month," she replied with a satisfied smile.

"You're not upset?"

"Nah, I knew it wouldn't work the first time he cheated on me, but I thought I might give it a good solid try before I left for good."

"And here you are doing a good deed for him."

She waved her hand away as if it was inconsequential. "Watching some fish is not that hard and look at this place! I was supposed to live in the lap of luxury for the weekend but no, that stupid fire had to happen. Anyway, I have a feeling he's going to try to sue me blind for the money he loaned me to invest in my tiny little short film company. It employs all of four people, including me and he gave me about $200,000 to put into the company and, I think, with the intent of taking control of it from me and managing its finances. Except I never cashed those checks. They're still in my lock box at my apartment. The only reason I would actually need a lawyer is simply to stand there and make it all look official."

"My associate can do that well enough," Harvey said, glancing down at Mike with a smug smile even as he watched his eyes light up in excitement.

"I'd be happy to take your case."

"What's your pay?"

"I have to work pro bono."

"Well, suit yourself. Here's my card. I'll call you once he's gotten back from his trip. I'm sure I'll get an earful once he sees how many fish have died."

Mike gave her a baleful look. "How many?" Then he dug into his wallet for his own business card and she snatched it from his hand.

"About ten now. I doubt it will improve overnight, since I can't stay."

"Why can't you stay?"

"Because the power's out! Even now that the stairwells are cleaned of all the smoke residue, this place is still uninhabitable until they fix the cooked wiring. It's considered a fire hazard and we're not actually allowed to stay overnight, so my ex is just shit out of luck on the fish."

"Well, uh, good luck with him then," Mike replied and they finally parted ways with her again.

The two girls continued their previous conversation as if they had never been erupted and Donna giggled. "They remind me of Lauren and myself. We had great times together. It's a shame she moved across the country," Donna said with a sad sigh.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Harvey asked and she noticed the look on his face was one of concentration and she was certain he was scouring his mind for whether or not she had ever mentioned or if he had met her.

"Six years ago. She was vacationing in New York for a week and we had a whole day together, but our friendship was never quite what it was. We've moved on."

Mike actually cheered when they reached Harvey's floor. "Yes! We're here! Can we not do that again, Harvey?"

"Well, that's the idea. I am _not_ moving anything out until the elevator starts working again," he said as they opened the door to the hallway. It was quiet, as usual, but there was a door open in the middle of the hall and all kinds of clutter and boxes had been shoved out into the hallway and up against the wall, making a paltry path for tenants to get through. Harvey peered into the doorway as he walked past and saw David rummaging through his kitchen.

"Found a new place already?"

The doctor glanced over at him and shook his head. "No, I'm just packing some things so that when I do get a place it will all be ready to just move. You're looking healthier since I last saw you. Catch up on all your sleep?"

"Yes," Harvey replied. "Alex mentioned breaking into your apartment to play pool."

"She _would_ phrase it that way, wouldn't she? Is that what you're here for? To disrupt my packing? I still need to beat you, if I remember correctly," David said, narrowing his eyes at him. "You cheated me out of my win!"

"The rescue team cheated you out of your pool game. Besides, I could have come from behind."

"As if, Specter, as if."

Harvey left without another word, and Donna and Mike peered in curiously at David, whose only greeting was a nod before he turned back to pull out more items.

"David reminded me that I should probably clean out my fridge before I leave. I would hate to have all that stuff just sitting there rotting all next week," Harvey replied, stopping at his door and began rifling through his keys.

"Eww…yeah. You would not be able to get me to clean your refrigerator if you did that," Donna said.

"I thought you were supposed to be my friend and be willing to do anything for me?" He shoved open the door and they all piled in.

"Even my friendship has some drawn lines and handling spoiled or rotten food is not in my job description," she said.

They both suddenly turned to Mike and he scowled at Harvey. "I don't care what kind of work you threaten to dump on me, I am not touching any rotten food."

"He can't threaten you with work," Donna said. "I wouldn't let him."

"But he threatened me down below before we climbed the stairs," Mike replied, his voice an octave higher which caused Harvey to snigger.

"That's because you offered your help and then tried to reneg and that's not a nice thing to do," Donna said, smiling mischievously at Mike. "So, what do you want us to do, Harvey?"

"You're here to carry things down, but…I guess you can pack all the food that is good to eat," he said. "Now, just give me a second while I think of where my boxes are." Harvey looked around his apartment as though it were a foreign territory to him, a feeling he wasn't used to, but it felt no less than radioactive with such a status as 'uninhabitable' on it. He couldn't wait to move out of here now, though he did stare wistfully out at his wall of glass; he would miss that view.

He shook his thoughts and stooped to slide under the stairs to his bedroom and fiddled with a latch to a little door. Once he had it open, he ducked in and pulled out a cooler and several flattened boxes and threw them out onto his condo floor. "That should be enough or the food in the pantry. Why don't you do that, Mike? Donna, you can put my refrigerated food into the cooler," he said, nudging it with his shoe.

His refrigerator was pretty bare to begin with, since he was by himself, but the first thing he grabbed was the milk and he pulled the tap off and immediately recoiled at the horrible smell. "I can't believe my milk is already spoiled. Yuck." He dumped it in the sink and then he opened the meat drawer and noticed that his hamburger and roast beef were all still good enough and he put them on the counter. "Ooooh…my grapes are still good," he took one off and popped it into his mouth. "A little tart, but good."

"Mmmm…grapes," Donna took the bowl he gave her and snapped off several to eat. "They're looking a little bit wrinkled. We'd have to eat them up today. Mike, have some grapes."

Harvey snorted as Mike left off his job of unpacking his pantry and started inhaling the grapes as if he hadn't just eaten half a dozen donuts. "Mm…Harvey, what exactly do you want me to pack from your pantry? I mean, you have all kinds of soup cans, dried pasta, and crackers. You like crackers."

"Pack the crackers, the peanut butter, a few cans of soup of different flavors, that dried spaghetti, Ragu, Oreos…"

"So, all of your snacks," Mike said and he seemed to have trouble keeping a straight face.

"I live on those snacks."

"It's amazing you haven't developed scurvy," Donna said to him with a shake of her head as she leaned on his kitchen counter and waited for him to hand her more food.

"I buy fruit! Grapes is one of those favorite snacks. I also like strawberries and kiwis."

"How about Vitamin C? Oranges, Harvey," Donna said

"That's what they have multivitamin for. When you can't stand some of the foods you're supposed to eat, you take a vitamin."

"Am I going to find a secret stash of protein drinks buried in your pantry, Harvey?"

He looked askance at Donna and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Do I look like a bodybuilder here? I work out, but I don't make the cut for that," he said.

"Just making sure. Now hurry up! I thought you wanted to get out of here."

"Stop distracting me. Eggs, here! Butter? Do I care enough about butter? No, no, I don't.

"Are they sticks of butter?" Donna asked.

"Yes, I have them."

"I'll use them! Take 'em."

"All right then. Oh, yuck, leftover pasta. That's disgusting," Harvey said, pulling out his trash can and dumping the food inside.

"You buy a lot of packaged crap," Mike suddenly said to him.

Harvey was very tempted to throw the rest of his leftover pasta at Mike. "I barely have time to eat this packaged food. What the hell makes you think I have the time to make _everything_ from scratch? So then what do you eat?"

"Err…well, yeah, I also eat a lot of packaged food, I just figured that, with you being so rich, you might be able to afford a better meal than me."

"I _do_ afford a better meal than you. There are cheap grocery stores and expensive ones; guess which ones I shop at?"

"I figured you would hire a maid or somebody to cook for you."

"I don't need a maid. What do you think I have Donna for?"

Donna opened her mouth in protest until she realized that she had made a deal just that morning to cook for him at least once a week. Then her protest turned to outrage at Harvey, but he only smirked and winked at her.

They were just about done clearing out the kitchens when Harvey suddenly turned away from the refrigerator as a sudden thought struck him and smiled smugly. "There are _some_ things that I make from scratch that I will not have any other way and it's starting to become just the season for it. He went to a cabinet by his sink and opened it up and then climbed onto the counter and reached up to the very top of the shelf to pull down a large Tupperware of some type of powder.

"So, what's that?" Mike said, staring at the container with a bland expression, clearly disappointed that it wasn't something more interesting.

"Homemade hot chocolate." Harvey held it up like it was the ark of the covenant and grinned. "The very best."

Their eyes brightened up as though they could finally see the gold hidden beneath. "Why don't you ever bring that to work?" Mike asked eagerly.

"Because you'd drain it all! And I don't share, either," he said, picking it up carefully and putting it in the box of salvageable dry food and eyed Mike warily as though he expected him to snatch it and run.

"Uh, no, Harvey, that's not how it works anymore. If I have to bring donuts, you have to bring the hot chocolate. It's only fair," Donna said. "Or you can give up the recipe."

He narrowed his eyes at her as he stood back up to his full height. "No, it's a _family_ _secret_," he said, throwing her own words back at her. "If we're talking fair, then what the hell is Mike bringing?"

"The flowers!"

"I don't make use of flowers."

"He's a poor ass associate. He doesn't need to bring anything."

"Thanks, Donna," Mike said to her with such an adoring look, Harvey almost gagged.

"Fine then. He's a poor ass associate who needs to make sure he gets into work on time if he wants any of those treats on the first Monday of every month," the older lawyer said, to make sure he got his point across at being punctual.

"Free food is a good motivator to get me in on time," Mike replied.

"Certainly didn't get you here," Harvey shot back and he poked his head back into his freezer to see if he could find anything else worth saving. Even as insulated as the freezer was, he ended up throwing almost everything in it out.

"It's Sunday! I'm not used to waking up this early on the weekend."

Harvey only snorted in disbelief and then he went out into the living room and dug up his folder of movies that he wanted to take, and set it by the counter with everything else. Then he went into his bedroom to dig through his suits. He pulled out a suitcase from the closet and packed some more clothes to wear for the week: his white under shirts, more underwear, another pair of jeans and a pair of khakis, his nice black shirt, a blue button down, and then a few long-sleeved and zipped it all up. He dragged it and four suits down and laid them out on his table and then looked at everything he wanted to take.

"Crap," Harvey said acidly and with a heavy sigh. "This is going to be more than one trip."

"You couldn't pay me to climb back up here to get your suits," Mike with a screwed up expression on his face.

"Not doing it either, Harvey," Donna said.

"This blows," Harvey said and then he picked walked over and picked up the big cooler. "Well, grab a box and let's go."

The trip downstairs didn't even take half the time it took to get upstairs and when they reached the lobby floor, Harvey actually started down yet another flight of stairs.

"Where are you going?" Mike asked.

"To my car! We can't fit all this in a cab."

Mike couldn't keep a gasp escaping his lips as they walked into an underground garage with some of the fanciest cars he had ever seen, even including the ones that he saw at the car show Harvey had made him come to. "Holy shit. Is that an Enzo Ferrari?"

"Yes," Harvey's reply was surprisingly clipped and even Donna frowned at his back. "I don't know what that idiot is thinking, keeping it here. It should be in its own private storage container."

"That's a James Bond car. Same color too," Mike said and he breathed in and out slowly, as though he were trying to keep from hyperventilating.

"Yes, the Aston Martin DB5. I'd like to have one," Harvey admitted, throwing the car an envious look, but he passed all of these and paused at one of the most lackluster looking cars in the place.

"That's yours?" Mike asked

"Yes."

"I'm surprised. I expected you to have the nicest car here."

"All of my nice cars are where they should be. In my own private parking lot," Harvey said. "But my '67 Mustang will work just find for what I need it. It even has a backseat for you, Mike."

"Oh good, I was so worried."

Once they had loaded everything up and then Harvey made a show of handing over the keys to Donna. "All right, I'm trusting that nothing will happen to either my car or the surrounding cars. Don't go anywhere and don't touch anything," he emphasized each word he said as though he were talking to children, but he was pointedly staring at Mike.

His associate only scowled in response and then Harvey left. Mike continued to stare after him until he disappeared back into the stairwell and then he muttered as he started off to look at some of the other cars, "He treats me like I'm five. I know not to touch."

"Mike, you're a magnet for trouble. You should have no difficulty acknowledging that," Donna said and his head sunk lower. "This is also a garage full of cars that I'm not even sure Harvey could pay for. If you do something stupid, you're on your own."

"I'll stick my hands in my pockets," he said and demonstrated this as he walked over to look at what looked to be a metallic blue Porsche gleaming in the poor lighting.

"Mike! Don't wander off! These are not cars on display," Donna called out to him.

"I know that!"

"Harvey said not to go _anywhere_ and bet your ass he included wandering around this garage," she snapped at him. "I don't need him chewing me out because you were too entranced with the cars to listen."

"He wouldn't chew you out, he'd chew me out."

"He put me in charge. That guarantees a lecture from him when he gets back. You really want to get me in trouble, Mike?" Donna asked.

He was still in sight but had walked halfway across the garage before he finally turned around, sighed, and started begrudgingly trudging back. When he finally stopped, he was next to her leaning against Harvey's car. "Honestly, I wasn't going to touch anything."

"I know you weren't, but you know how private rich people tend to be. They would not want you ogling their cars if it's not entered into a car show; you could easily get Harvey in trouble with his peers. Now, if you want me to, I can at least turn on the radio and see if we can get a signal in here."

"All right then. Beats waiting for him like this," Mike said and he climbed into the backseat on Donna's side of the car. She slid into the front to turn the car on, so they were surprised when they found that not only did they get a signal, but it was on the classic rock channel and Rolling Stones was blasting out over the speakers. It wasn't until half an hour had passed that the car suddenly jolted and they both jumped. Donna poked her head out the driver's side door and saw Harvey trying to put his suitcase into the car while still holding onto his suits by their hangars. She clambered out to take the suits from his hand and pulled his driver's seat back to hang them up on the inside of his car while he maneuvered the suitcase in with the rest of his stuff and then shut the trunk.

It was only when Harvey climbed into the Mustang and shut the door that she got a really good look at him, and then she glanced at her cellphone. "You must have been booking it to make it back here in half an hour. You look exhausted."

"I'm fine," he said to her and his face was the epitome of neutrality, but she could hear the strain in his voice and there was a certain glassy quality to his eyes.

She merely sighed in response and let him pretend to hide it.

By the time they got back to her apartment, Harvey did not bother hiding how tired he was. He just walked over to her couch and sat down on it in a way that was not dissimilar to early Saturday morning and he sighed. They had dropped Mike off back at his apartment, driven back to Donna's, unloaded everything, and then drove the Mustang back over to his private parking lot, and then took yet another taxi back to her place. Unlike Saturday morning though, Harvey was not content to sit there and risk taking a nap. He tried to stand up but Donna, who had come up behind him, clamped her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down.

"Harvey, you need to rest. You did a lot of heavy lifting today and five minutes is not going to kill you."

"It might not kill me, but it will kill my afternoon. There's no way I'll be able to sit here and not drift oooohhh." His voice trailed into a groan as she dug her fingers into two particularly tense muscles on his shoulders.

"You've been needing this all weekend," she said as she gently massaged the shoulders. "You put this off any longer and you'll have one hell of a tension headache."

"I had one for the last two weeks," he replied. He opened his eyes like they had drifted shut of his own accord and he struggled to keep them open. "No, no, I have to get up. I have to call Karen Scott."

"No you don't. You can do that tomorrow. You have all week to find a new apartment, since you're not moving until the weekend."

"But I should let her know I'm in the market, that way she'll have some listings ready for me tomorrow."

"Harvey, it's Sunday. She's probably not even working. Not everyone's a workaholic like you," Donna replied. At this, she concentrated solely on his right shoulder, the bad shoulder and she felt him sink further into her couch as she kneaded the muscle under his skin.

"God, that feels good. You're right. Screw Karen Scott."

"Oh, you don't want to do that. You don't know where she's been."

Harvey could not stop from laughing but he sobered up quickly when Donna said, "Now get to my bed. You should really be lying down when I do this."

"You going to have your way with me."

She gave him a curios smile and said, "Only in your dreams."

* * *

><p><strong>Just one more chapter to go! The story wasn't meant to do more than really cover Harvey's weekend and it was never meant to be overtly romantic between Donna and Harvey, so sorry. =p I'm saving that for another idea. I'm going to work extra hard to have the last chapter up by this weekend, hopefully, so I can finally move onto other projects, like my <em>The Not So Dead Walking<em>.**

**Thank you for the reviews so far! I love hearing your feedback. =)**


	11. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: The last chapter! Thank you ever so much for your reviews, everyone! It was a pleasure writing for you. =)**

**And, Bloo, I wasn't apologizing for what I did write, I apologized for not making it _more_ romantic (i.e., kissing, real snuggling, etc.). The story was never supposed to tread into _that_ territory. I intend for my next one to, though, but you won't see that for a while. At least not until I finish _The Not So Dead Walking_. Thank you for your feedback!**

**I do not own Suits.  
><strong>

**Chapter 10**

On any normal day, Harvey's presence attracted a number of envious and even awed looks from the other lawyers and associates, parting them like the Red Sea, and he thought it was powered primarily by his confident stride and serious attitude towards all things lawyerly. When most people saw him, few had the courage to meet his eye. This Monday, however, was different and Harvey decided he would have to reformulate his hypothesis on what really caught everyone's attention.

He still slid through the halls with the ease of a barracuda hunting its prey, but he could have sworn Gregory walked into a wall when he turned a corner too sharply. He hadn't bothered to look back as he was walking to his office. Much to his amusement, Louis had walked right past him without even a glance, which was a welcome change from the _usual_ attention the junior partner gave him – he didn't care to hear about _any_ of Louis' sexual rendezvous. Although the sniveling lawyer was engrossed in some paperwork, he usually watched Harvey coming so that he could puff himself up.

Donna was at her desk just like she usually was. Her eyes flicked up from the screen and she couldn't keep an amused smirk from spreading over her face.

"Good morning, Harvey," she said to him, as if they hadn't woken up next to each other again. This time there was _no_ cuddling to be had – he didn't need his image tarnished more than it already was.

"Donna," he replied, "Anything new for me?"

"Not really, since you can't meet with clients until Wednesday. Looks like you and Mike are stuck on research for a few days."

"Great," Harvey mumbled, picking up the envelopes and folders waiting for him. He had to work very hard to keep a full smile from breaking out on his face when she produced his regular cup of coffee.

"Oh and Jessica will be by in five to see you."

"Did she say that?"

"Nope, my radar is pinging."

"One day, I'll figure out where you get your super powers from," Harvey replied.

"Never going to happen," she replied as he began walking into his office. "I must say, though, your power is seriously diminished without one of your suits on."

"Damn. I was really hoping it was the power of my personality that made everyone cower."

"It is, but your suits amplify it. Must be the reason no one can sit around in khakis here."

"I don't know about that. Louis could walk in right now and I still think I'd look the part of the lawyer better than he would."

There was silence on Donna's part and it was only after he sat down behind his desk that she answered, "Khakis and a black shirt, Harvey? I think even Louis could pull off lawyer in his cheap suits better than you."

He huffed. "Don't you have work to do?"

She hummed at him, a covert sign of her laughter and then she clicked off the speaker connecting their desks.

He hadn't even been reading one of the letters Donna handed him for more than two minutes when the speaker clicked on again. "Ping."

The lawyer glanced up to find Jessica almost to Donna's desk and he couldn't help but give the back of Donna's head a look of both exasperation and amusement. He could just imagine the proud smile she was wearing right at that moment.

Jessica strode in with a mere nod to Donna, who returned it, wearing a simple skirt suit and she walked up to Harvey's desk and crossed her arms.

"Why are you here?" She asked with a severe frown on her face.

Harvey stared up at her and gave her his most charming smile. "I believe I work here."

She shifted and he knew she was not really angry with him at all, but she gave him an exasperated sigh. "You are looking considerably healthier from when I saw you on Friday, but I would have expected you to take a few days off after your last case. Anyone else would've taken a week off. Why can't you act human every once in a while?"

"But Donna said I needed routine," Harvey shot back at her, barely able to smother a smile.

"I'm sorry, Jessica. I really wanted to call him in sick, but he was driving me crazy with his work-a-holicism. Is there a cure for that?" Donna said over the speaker.

Harvey frowned at it. "Who said you could listen in on this conversation?"

"_You_ did. When you failed to turn off my speaker," she replied with more than a little smugness.

He toyed with the button as though threatening to cut her off, but in the end he never did, hardly minding her input. It was rare occurrence when he did shut off her speaker, but by unspoken agreement, she knew there were some conversations of a truly private nature that he didn't want her to listen to and she never complained when he did turn her access off.

"Don't listen to her. I slept most of the weekend away."

Jessica gave him a stony look. "I know you well enough not to doubt a word of her testimony."

"Well, I really did sleep most of the weekend away."

"I would have to agree. He did," Donna said and Jessica nodded in satisfaction.

"Be that as it may, you will leave the office at noon today," she said.

Harvey's expression hardened and he stood to his full height – it never failed to bother him that he could never quite pull of intimidating to her. – and stared her straight in the eye, "I can work. Donna's already arranged my schedule so that all clientele meetings are Wednesday, after I get my suits back from the dry cleaners."

"Did you _really_ need to take them all in?" Jessica said, a hint of amusement in her voice. He couldn't tell if she it was caused either by his choice to take all his suits to the dry cleaners or his silly attempt at intimidating her.

"You think I would risk showing up to work with ash or soot on my suit then you would be sorely mistaken."

"They were in your closet," she replied. "Perfectly wearable and probably very much untouched."

"Those are expensive suits! I would not take the risk of them being ruined."

"Even if they were, it wouldn't take much to replace your entire collection. I think I pay you enough."

"That's beside the point; I just got one of those suits last month. I would hate for Rene to think I didn't take care of the suits he sells me."

"I'm sure he would understand as long as he continues to receive your patronage."

"You act like the protectiveness over my expensive clothes is some strange quirk and yet, I bet you would panic if your apartment flooded and put your Jimmy Choos as risk," he replied with a nod to her feet.

Jessica pursed her lips, a sign of her frustration, and then Donna's voice came over the speaker again, "You're not going to win this one, Jessica. He and I headbutted over this earlier today."

"Fine. Feel free to take your suits in _but_, since I think you need a vacation and since you happen to not have any proper dress, I'll make that the official excuse to send you home. And don't you dare come back until you have your suits back, which will be…?"

"Wednesday," Donna supplied. Harvey could only sit there and frown at Jessica.

"Wednesday then. Donna, I expect you to make sure he takes it easy."

"Yes, Ms. Pearson," the secretary replied, but she mumbled just loud enough for them to hear. "That's easier said than done."

Jessica only stood there in front of his desk with her arms crossed and a triumphant smile on her face. While Harvey had pulled his mask back on to show his signature neutral expression, all that Jessica cared about was that she had wiped the amusement from his face, but if she thought he was going to walk away quietly…

"I can do research and write letters _without_ my three-piece suit, so that I will not fall behind in my work."

"I assign you your work," Jessica said. "And I can just as easily reassign it. Consider yourself free of responsibility."

"Harvey, taking a few days off is not going to kill you," Donna interjected. "Besides, you need to look for a condo, anyway. Just when did you expect to do that?"

He did not grace her with an answer, but Jessica's eyes lit up and she said, "Well, you have all afternoon now. So get to it, Harvey" She turned to leave and as she walked she heard Harvey mutter something under his breath along the lines of "This is what I get for letting women run my life." It was tempting to wrap his knuckles with some good old-fashioned burial by briefs, but that would just give him an excuse to keep working, but just as she reached the door she said, "Oh yes, I got a call by one David Reeft. He said he was a tenant on the same floor as you. Know him?"

Harvey clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Maybe not so fortunately yes." She looked at him crossly and he clarified, "I don't like being on familiar terms with my neighbors."

"Well, he sounded pretty pragmatic, which should meet your approval. I am going to offer them Pearson Hardman's services for the suit. Feel free to offer your input if you are so inclined."

"Not likely," he said. The answer was quick and frank, but Jessica could sense a long list of reasons why Harvey would prefer to not have anything to do with the case.

"As you wish," was her only reply. "Now leave, Harvey. Your new condo won't find itself."

"That is so very true," Harvey said, with an exaggerated sigh and his expression turned into one of long suffering. "Do you have any idea how uncomfortable Donna's couch is?"

"You looked quite comfortable on it Saturday morning when you fell asleep sitting up," Donna snarked at him over the speakerphone and he toyed with the button again, as though threatening to turn it off.

"Behave, Harvey. Donna's doing you one hell of a favor," Jessica said and then finally left for her office.

"I guess I'll call Karen and ask if she can show me the condos earlier," Harvey said aloud with a heavy sigh. "Donna, would you – "

"Yes, I will."

Harvey frowned at her back. Not once had she turned around to look at him and he was really starting to wonder about those super powers, before he decided to push a little further. "You don't know what I was going to ask."

"Yes, I do."

"It could have been to call Karen for me. Or to call Mike so that I can send him home, too."

"Well, you do need to do the latter, but no. You were not going to ask me to do either of those things."

"So?"

"You were going to ask if I could look at condos with you."

"What? I am very certain that was _not_ the question I was going to ask you."

"You were going to ask eventually."

"I don't need you to go condo shopping with me; I managed quite well the first time."

"You had me look at pictures of the condos you went through."

"I was leaning towards my current condo!"

"But you still asked me," she replied, nonplussed at his indignation, hidden to all but her. She could just decipher that specific cadence in his voice to know his feelings. "You need a woman's touch, Harvey. If I let you get a total man cave, you'd never be able to get a woman to stay more than five minutes in a condo with you."

He could just hear the insult she was waiting to add to that – "as if you needed five minutes" – and he leaned close to his speakerphone so that he wouldn't miss it, but she held her silence. That was definitely toeing the line of inappropriate talk in the workplace and he was almost ashamed to feel relief when she deliberately kept her mouth shut. It may not have been spoken, but it was implied. He vowed revenge.

"I am hardly inclined towards a complete and total man cave. I do have _taste_," Harvey shot back.

"Sometimes I wonder, but yes, you tend to have overall good taste. Your condo is a case-in-point. You certainly knew you could sweep a woman off her feet with those views," she replied.

"Would you count yourself among those women?" He felt entirely too interested in knowing that answer and did his best to suppress his curiosity.

"Oh, please, Harvey, who _wouldn__'__t_be impressed?"

"Good point," he said and then he pulled out his cell phone with a sigh. "I'm calling Karen. Tell Mike to be here in five minutes."

He was just ending his call with the realtor when Mike walked in, dressed in one of his cheap suits and skinny ties. The associate hesitated at the office door, with his head cocked in curiosity at Harvey and when the older lawyer eventually hung up the phone, Mike made his entrance, strutting confidently and smiling smugly.

"I need a picture of this. The one day I am better dressed than Harvey Specter, best closer in the city," Mike said, still smiling as he handed over his research for the new case they were supposed to be working on.

"I don't know, pup. Those skinny ties will keep you from ever looking richer than a newly graduated college student trying to land his first job," Harvey said, throwing the file on his desk and then standing up to pull on his leather jacket.

"Bitter today, I see," Mike replied, but the smile suddenly stymied and the associate deflated like a balloon slowly leaking air.

"What's wrong with you? Someone kick your puppy?"

"Hah. No…it's just – you not being dressed up in your suits is making the other associates talk. Greg got a group of them laughing about how I must have somehow spilled coffee on all of them."

"You still care what those idiots think?" Harvey asked, rolling his eyes. "Greg said that? Because I saw him walk into a wall because he was too busy looking at me."

"Did he really? I may have to throw that in his face. Well, I don't really care what Greg and Kyle think, but I'm sick of everyone thinking of me as only a screw up."

"Donna and I know you're not a screw up and we're the only ones that matter. Never forget, Mike, they'll _never_ be half as good a lawyer as you will be," Harvey replied, managing to keep any notions of caring off his face and instead channeled it into an irritating frown. "Now, Jessica is kicking me out of the building because I'm not dressed to code." He grimaced at this and muttered something inaudible under his breath before he continued. "Because I am being forced on an impromptu vacation, so are you. I don't want to see you and your cheap ass suits until Wednesday."

"Well, I'd love to, Harvey, but Louis gave me a nice stack of briefs due to him tomorrow morning."

"Hand it off to someone else."

Mike stared at him for a moment and then gave him a hollow laugh. "I can't just hand it off to someone else."

"Then tell them _I_ told them to do it."

"I'm not sure they would believe me if I told them it was on your behalf. Besides, Louis would still hunt me down and skin me alive."

"Fine, I'll do it myself."

They had been standing at the doorway as they talked; the older lawyer had just started heading off in the direction of the associate's cubicles.

"Harvey!"

He turned to Donna and blinked at the flash that assaulted his eyes and then fury swept through him as he saw Donna's point camera and the pleased smile on her face.

"Delete that," he commanded her.

"Not a chance."

"Awesome, Donna, now I'll have a picture to commemorate this moment!"

The lawyer let out a sigh of frustration and headed down the hall to the little nest of cubicles which housed about half of the associates. Much like in the outer hallways, Harvey thought every single associate glanced up and stared as they passed, apparently still unable to grasp that Harvey Specter was not wearing his three-piece suit. At Mike's desk, Harvey saw three stacks of papers and he looked at Mike with irritation.

"You need to better organize your desk."

"I have a system."

"These are the briefs," Harvey said, picking up the nearest stack.

"And these," Mike replied, picking up the second closest stack which was almost as high as the first, to which Harvey stared. Under ordinary circumstances, no associate could possibly get through those briefs overnight, let alone two days and seeing how Mike still managed to get through the combined pressure of not only Louis but himself made him swell with pride. He kept the evidence of it to only a slight quirk of his lips and then he walked over to Kyle's desk. "You, Louis' protégé, shouldn't you be doing these? Eight o'clock, tomorrow morning, Louis' desk." Kyle gaped as they were placed on his desk. "Mike, hand that stack to George. I doubt they can handle more than that."

"Okay," Mike replied and he set them across the way onto the other associate's desk. Greg just glared at him and Mike could not keep from ribbing him, "Here you are, courtesy of Harvey Specter."

"Now grab your things and get out of here," Harvey said to him and with that the older lawyer left his associate to pack up.

He wouldn't deny it, but he enjoyed getting back at the little pissants who constantly made life in the law firm hell for Mike, just as they had made it hell for him back in the day. One day, he was certain that Mike would be where he was now and would forever be able to lord it over Greg and Kyle that he had reached the pinnacle of success, just as his mentor had. It would happen and he would do his damndest to make sure that Mike attained it.

When Donna came into view again his smile lessened ever so slightly and he narrowed his eyes at her. _But __first__…_ That picture had to go. He was going to make sure no evidence could possibly exist of him at the office during day hours without his usual suit. Once the evidence was gone, plausible deniability was possible, and then, of course, was revenge. He would find a way to get back at Donna, he made it a promise, as he stopped at her desk trying to look inconspicuous.

"Not going to happen, Harvey."

So disposing of evidence was going to be a challenge, but Harvey Specter never said no to a challenge.

* * *

><p><strong>The End<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed the last chapter! **


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